San Antonio Spurs’ Tony Parker and the rest of the French National Team began their preparation for EuroBasket 2011 today in France.
Over the next five days, les Bleus will go through physical training before attacking the basketball part of their preparations when they move to the south-western city of Pau on 20 July for six days, culminating with a game against Canada.
Parker will be joined by fellow NBA players Joakim Noah, Boris Diaw, Nicolas Batum, Ronny Turiaf, and Mickael Pietrus as they hope to qualify for the 2012 Olympics in London. And this begins in Lithuania at the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament in August.
France will be looking to make the Olympic games, something they have not done in 12 years.
As for Parker, he reiterated his decision to play for France – Villeurbanne – in January if the NBA lockout is not settled and stated he was surprised at New Jersey Nets’ Deron Williams decision to play for Turkey:
I talked to him a few days ago and he told me he wanted an adventure in Europe for his family.
Parker also said he isn’t worried about any insurance issues for playing on the national team and is confident the French Federation will find a solution.
