Fournier: Disappointment from 2017 helped build this France team

COLOGNE (Germany) - France came to the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 with the pressure of being title contenders, and Evan Fournier carries the extra weight of being team captain. The New York Knicks wing at the same time wants to make sure France do not repeat their performance from the most recent EuroBasket.

Fournier will turn 30 years old in late October, and he would love to cap his summer by standing on the EuroBasket podium for a second time - following the bronze in 2015.

So far in Cologne, France have ebbed and flowed with the performance of Fournier, who was held to just 7 points in the team's opening loss 76-63 to Germany and then poured in 27 points in a 77-73 victory over Lithuania. He was down to 12 points in a just-get-the-job-done-and-win performance by France in a 78-74 triumph over Hungary.

 
"I found my offensive groove," he said after the Lithuania game. "I want to show the guys and give them confidence. We finally started playing basketball. We were disappointed about way we played versus Germany. But that was more about how we played."

Fournier, who is leading France in scoring with 15.3 points while also chipping in 3.0 assists and 2.7 rebounds, is playing his sixth major tournament - missing only the 2016 Olympics since making his first appearance on a big stage at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2014 as a 21-year-old. Just like EuroBasket 2015, Fournier helped France to finish third at the 2014 and 2019 FIBA World Cups and he grabbed the silver medal at the 2021 Olympics.

 
"It was beautiful experience. It was my first time at the Olympics overall. It was a great atmosphere being at the village - just too bad that with Covid there were a lot of restrictions. But the tournament itself was great. We had one hell of a team in and there's this continuity. We have eight players returning from last year," he said.

In all, 10 of the 12 French players in Germany have at least one big tournament in their past. But only three of them - Fournier, Thomas Heurtel and Vincent Poirier - experienced the disappointment of the 2017 EuroBasket, where Les Bleus  exited in the Round of 16.

"We were at the end of a cycle with all the old guys leaving. So it was a reconstruction a little," Fournier recalled of France losing to hosts Finland and Slovenia for a 3-2 record in the Group Phase before getting beaten 84-81 by Germany in the first knockout game.

 
"We don't really think about it to be honest. It's in the past, but at the end of the day it helped us to build the team that we have now. So it was a learning experience. We definitely don't want to go through that again. And the guys that were there we took it as a lesson on how to play at a EuroBasket," said Fournier, who was the French team’s leading scorer in 2017 with 15.8 points per game.

Vincent Collet's team is full players who have experienced highs on the biggest stage. Fournier however is a reminder for them all that France have also had lows, and that will give the whole team more motivation.

FIBA