Records, crises and historic triumphs: French basketball’s 2025 year in 10 events

This Wednesday, December 31st, it’s time for the grand recap. The 2025 year of French basketball has been marked by peaks and precipices, unprecedented records and worrying warning signs. Never has the French presence on the international stage been so strong, never have national structures seemed so fragile.

A dark summer for the French national teams, after the euphoria of 2024

The contrast with the summer of 2024 is striking. One year after an exceptional Olympic run in Paris, French basketball experienced a 2025 summer without a single international title. Out of 14 competitions contested in 5×5 and 3×3, only three medals were brought back, all silver or bronze.

The early elimination of the French men’s team in the round of 16 of EuroBasket against Georgia on September 7th symbolized this failed summer. The Blues end the year with a raw record of 70% victories in 5×5, but without any major reward, a rare occurrence for a nation that has become a continental reference.

The cascading forfeitures, post-Olympic transition, and absence of automatic qualification for the 2028 Los Angeles Games now place French basketball under pressure from the next international deadlines.

Paris Basketball champion of France: a founding triumph

June 24, 2025 will remain a founding date. By beating Monaco in game 5 of the Betclic ELITE finals, Paris Basketball secured the first French championship title in its history.

In a packed Adidas Arena, the duo T.J. Shorts – Nadir Hifi embodied the rise of a club born in 2018 and already winner of the Leaders Cup, EuroCup and French Cup. This title definitively established Paris as a stronghold of European basketball, both sportingly and structurally.

Monaco in EuroLeague finals, 32 years after Limoges

Another historic moment: AS Monaco Basket’s qualification for the EuroLeague finals. A first for a French championship club since Limoges CSP in 1993.

In Abu Dhabi, the Roca Team dominated Olympiakos in the semi-final, erasing the trauma of Kaunas two years earlier. Carried by Mike James, Alpha Diallo and a solid collective, Monaco put Betclic ELITE back on the map of the very highest continental level.

The massive exodus to the NCAA, accelerated by NIL

The year 2025 also marked a structural turning point. Nearly 70 French players are competing in the NCAA this season, an unprecedented figure. The implementation of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) has disrupted the economic balance, offering young players – boys and girls – amounts unattainable for French clubs.

At the end of 2025, mid-season departures, like that of Alicia Tournebize, from Bourges to South Carolina, symbolized this new reality. Now, the NCAA is no longer an exception but a central trajectory for the development of French talent.

NBA Europe: a revolution announced for 2027

Major confirmation of 2025: the arrival of the NBA in Europe is now set for the 2027-2028 season. The future league will include at least two French clubs, in Paris and Lyon.

This project profoundly reshuffles the cards. The EuroLeague could lose several major clubs as early as 2026-2027, opening an unprecedented period of instability for European and French basketball.

Six French players drafted in the NBA, an absolute record

On an individual level, 2025 will remain a historic year. Six French players were selected in the NBA Draft, a record. From Noa Essengue to Mohamed Diawara, including Joan Beringer, Nolan Traore, Noah Penda and Maxime Raynaud, the diversity of profiles confirms the potential of the French talent pool.

With 19 French players under NBA contract this season, France asserts itself more than ever as the third supplier of league players behind the United States and Canada.

The WNBA attracts more and more French players

Ten French players competed in the WNBA in 2025, in a league in full expansion. However, this development has a direct impact on the European calendar – particularly the end of the Boulangere Wonderligue season – and international competitions, with several internationals having missed EuroBasket to honor their American commitments.

Records of French players in EuroLeague and NBA

Another striking figure: 38 French players engaged in EuroLeague for the 2025-2026 season, a historic record, and 19 in the NBA, another record (see above). Never has French basketball been so visible at the summit of world club basketball, with a massive presence in these two major competitions.

Le Mans, Leaders Cup fairy tale

On the national level, Le Mans Sarthe Basket wrote one of the finest pages of the season. With a reduced roster, MSB won the 2025 Leaders Cup in Caen, becoming the most decorated club in the competition’s history, beating Cholet, Saint-Quentin and especially Monaco – future EuroLeague finalist – over the weekend in Normandy.

Tarbes, symbol of a struggling LFB

Conversely, the fall of Tarbes Gespe Bigorre embodied the economic fragilities of French women’s basketball. Runner-up champion of France in the spring, the club found itself within a few months on the brink of judicial liquidation.

Between administrative relegations, political tensions and partner disengagement, the Tarbes case illustrates the structural difficulties of La Boulangere Wonderligue, caught between national economic crisis, WNBA competition and growing NCAA attractiveness. Not to mention the numerous departures of French players to a Liga Endesa experiencing renewed attractiveness.

A pivotal year for the future

In 2025, French basketball confirmed its sporting power internationally, while revealing its structural flaws. More than ever, the past year poses a central question: how to transform this wealth of talent into a sustainable model, capable of resisting the economic and geopolitical upheavals of world basketball?