Elie Okobo: « We needed to throw the first punch from the first minute »
After the game ended, Elie Okobo (6’3″, 27) voiced his frustration following France’s defeat against Georgia (70-80) in the round of 16 at EuroBasket 2025. The Monaco combo guard couldn’t hide his disappointment after the match. Despite shooting struggles (9 points on 4/12 shooting), the Bordeaux native still put in real 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 coach Frederic Fauthoux, Elie Okobo came to the same conclusion right after the final buzzer: Team France was guilty of too passive a start against Georgia. The youth of the French team clearly weighed against the Georgians’ 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 championship about the lack of switching and communication on defense 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. »
« We should have fouled much harder to set the tone. »
Elie Okobo, sixth man of Team France
Not always the most rigorous in the past, Elie Okobo showed exemplary defensive commitment this time. Unfortunately, as 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 errors:
« We showed during preparation and in the first games that we were capable of defending, 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? We should have fouled much harder to set the tone.
It was mostly a matter of concentration, defensively, 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 either 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 chase. Even if it’s early to draw conclusions, he hopes this EuroBasket 2025 failure will serve 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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