France coach Vincent Collet has named his final 12 players for Eurobasket as they head to Helsinki to begin play tomorrow.
Olympiacos’ Kim Tille is the final man to be cut from the French squad, which is a sigh of relief for the Greek side as Tille will now head to Piraeus to begin pre-season ahead of the EuroLeague campaign which begins in October.
“We had to face an unprecedented situation with my staff, pushing back the announcement of the roster until today,” Collet said in a statement. “We exchanged a lot of different opinions before expressing a final choice. It was a difficult decision due to the medical concerns for some players (Poirier, Séraphin) and the number of the player missing.
“Kim (Tillie) has been exemplary, as always, in the team since the beginning of the preparation. Nevertheless, the emergence and the profile of Louis Labeyrie, who brings different options on the court, pushed us to decide in favour of the latter. I want to thank Kim for his work and his behaviour and I wish him an excellent season with his new club Olympiacos.”
France Roster:
Thomas Heurtel, Antoine Diot, Leo Westermann, Nando De Colo, Edwin Jackson, Evan Fournier, Axel Toupane, Boris Diaw, Louis Labeyrie, Joffrey Lauvergne, Kevin Seraphin and Vincent Poirier.
