Elie Okobo: « We needed to throw the first punch from the first minute »
« What the fuck! » Three times after the game ended, Elie Okobo (6’3″, 27) shouted following France’s defeat against Georgia (70-80) in the EuroBasket 2025 round of 16. The AS Monaco combo guard couldn’t hide his disappointment after the game. Despite struggling with his shot (9 points on 4/12 shooting), the Bordeaux native still gave great defensive effort (4 steals) to raise a level that was far too low at the start of the game.
Like his teammate Isaia Cordinier and his coach Frederic Fauthoux, Elie Okobo had already drawn the same conclusion right after the final buzzer: France was guilty of starting too passively against Georgia. The youth of the French team clearly struggled against Georgia’s physicality and Aleksandar Dzikic’s tactical mastery.
« Of course we lacked experience! (Sighs) We needed to throw the first punch from the first minute. We’ve been talking since the start of the tournament about our lack of defensive switches and communication and now… It’s clearly a lack of experience, but also concentration. We didn’t have success on offense but we weren’t defending well so… it became complicated. »
« Make much harder fouls to set the tone. »
Elie Okobo, sixth man of the French team
Not always the most rigorous in the past, Elie Okobo showed exemplary defensive commitment this time. Unfortunately, as the sixth man, he couldn’t set the example from the start of the game. The former JSA Bordeaux, Elan Bearnais, Phoenix Suns and ASVEL player added more about France’s defensive mistakes:
« We showed during preparation and in the first games that we were capable of defending, of getting the stops that build confidence. And today we couldn’t do it. There were some small sequences, but it clearly wasn’t enough. […] They had two or three players who had good games yes. But shouldn’t we have played harder? Make much harder fouls to set the tone.
It was mostly a matter of concentration, defensively, of following instructions. On offense, we had plenty of open shots and they weren’t falling. We live and die with that, but defensively… (thinks) 80 points isn’t huge but we only scored 70 on our end… »
At almost 28, Elie Okobo, who recently reached 50 caps, still has campaigns ahead and medals to win. Even if it’s early to take stock, he hopes this EuroBasket 2025 failure will serve as a lesson for the young French team, to come back stronger. At least that’s what he hopes. « We’ll learn, we’ll see in the next campaigns, the windows. We’ll see how it goes. » First objective: qualify for the 2027 World Cup in Qatar. Qualifications begin in late November.
Georgia – Stagger Flip 15 Angle Roll pic.twitter.com/bwvmiwaQGr
— Sean Billerman (@sbill30) September 7, 2025
In Riga,
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