The French basketball federation announced this Wednesday their NT coach, finally. Without any surprise, Vincent Collet, the current coach of ASVEL will take over the job with the goal to qualify France for the Olympic Games 2012 in London. He will be assisted by Michel Veyronnet and Jacky Commères. The name of Larry Brown has been mentioned several times during the last times, and the current coach of the Charlotte Bobcats will become a member of the French staff.
His role has not yet been defined but he will not be of direct influence on the court. He should be the contact person among NBA personnel for everything that is in relation with the French National Team, the title of Technical Adviser has been mentioned by the French Federation. However, the deal is not yet sure at 100% but in a good way.
The real good news for France though is that Boris Diaw has been taken of the NBA insurance policy Black List. This Black List features the 14 most difficult contracts in terms of remaining salaries and injury-prone-ness and implicates that a massive insurance policy has to be paid by the Federation and that impeached Diaw to play during the Qualification phase for the Eurobasket 2009. So it looks like France is putting together all their best assets in order to reach Poland in September. The only thing is that the media are only talking about the games against Italy. However, Finland is also an opponent in their qualification group and how many times, a French basketball team was beaten by their own nerves in the decisive moments.
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