Beaten by Israel, France complicates its path at EuroBasket!
August 31, 2025
Alexandre Lacoste
Captain Guerschon Yabusele’s anger: « We played too selfishly »
French National Team - Guerschon Yabusele reflected on France's defeat against Israel this Sunday, August 31 at EuroBasket 2025. The French captain didn't mince his words, regretting a game that was too "selfish".
Photo Credit : Julie Dumélié
An angry captain faced the press just minutes after the French team’s first defeat in this EuroBasket 2025, against Israel. Guerschon Yabusele criticized his team’s overly « selfish » play in this third game in Katowice, noting that to get back in the game, the French should have shared the ball more and moved more. Still struggling against packed defenses (7 points on 2/6 shooting), having difficulty grabbing precious rebounds (2 in almost 28 minutes), the Dreux native hopes for a reaction from his team Tuesday night against Poland.
How do you explain the defeat and its magnitude?
I don’t know. They played their game. We weren’t good on defense, we weren’t good on offense. We played more selfishly today. We didn’t get good situations and we let them impose their rhythm.
Did you lose the thread? You had a good start but then let them come back.
You need to watch the game too. You’ll understand. There are things I can’t necessarily talk about here. But I think you’ll understand what I’m talking about. It’s been several games now. We need to learn to play with it. We’ll find a way. But the next game will be important for us.
Do you think there were too many 3-point shots? Too many static possessions?
We took a lot of 3-point shots. We were less aggressive. Yet when we were aggressive, we found good situations. Then we stopped doing it. We shot more instead.
Their zone defense also disrupted you.
We needed to adjust. There were good situations, we had good shots. Today, we needed to maintain our defense. We were a bit worse on defense. But we’ll regroup. It will be fine for the next game.
At the end of the game, were you aware that you also needed to limit the gap in case of a tie between multiple teams?
Of course. We play 40 minutes. Every time on shots, when we went for rebounds, they had players running behind and they got their layups.
Is this first defeat also a good lesson, a wake-up call? Can it help you?
Why? What’s wrong with winning everything? There’s no problem with that. Today, we lost in a way we shouldn’t have. But whether we win all games or lose one or two, that’s not necessarily the lesson. Today, we saw more of our weaknesses. In situations we’re not used to. But in any case, I think it doesn’t change anything (having lost).
Guerschon YABUSELE
7
PTS
2
REB
3
AST
In some matches so far, were you perhaps too reactive? Maybe you need to learn to kill the game earlier?
No, that’s what you’re saying. A basketball game is complicated. The teams are completely different in the whole group. Each team plays differently. There are teams against whom a game like this can work. Other teams not. We tried to play. We tried to impose our rhythm. Today, they were better. And we’re preparing for the next game.
We learn from it and move on. See you Tuesday 👊🏾❤
— Guerschon Yabusele (@yabusele28) August 31, 2025
There’s this game against Poland, which is almost like a small group final, Tuesday night.
Yes, all games will count anyway. And we try to win everything. We’re not just trying to calculate and look at what we can win, what we can’t win.
In Katowice,
Gabriel Pantel-Jouve est le fondateur et rédacteur en chef de BeBasket, qu’il anime depuis 2010 (sous le nom de Catch & Shoot). Passé par l’Ecole Publique de Journaliste de Tours, puis deux universités en Amérique du Nord, il a pu développer son expertise sur le basket français, de la Ligue Nationale aux divisions amateurs, durant ces 20 dernières années. En parallèle, il est aussi engagé dans le développement de clubs du côté de Montpellier.
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