France was eliminated from the FIBA World Cup on Sunday after just two games, a stunning result for a country that came into the tournament ranked No. 5 in the world. The outcome is certainly prompting a serious reckoning from at least one player.
France lost to Canada and Latvia in its first two games to be eliminated despite having the third-best odds to win the event at the start. The disappointment was real for NBA veteran Nicolas Batum, who admitted he was “ashamed” and “scared to go home” after the loss.
“I’ve never been ashamed with this jersey but this is the first time I’m ashamed,” Batum said at his postgame press conference, via Jack Maloney of CBS Sports. “I’m scared to go home because we let a lot of people down. A lot of people believed in us to do something special. We didn’t do it.”
Getting bounced after two games represents the worst outcome in competition history for France. To make matters worse, they got blown out by Canada and lost by two to a Latvia team missing its best player. With an NBA core of Batum, Rudy Gobert, and Evan Fournier, this should not have happened, so Batum’s emotions are understandable.
