spursparker9
11-03-2014, 08:29 PM
Over the summer, Boris Diaw was interviewed by French sports news behemoth L'Equipe. Thanks to Olivier Friker, our special foreign correspondent, we have a translation of the revealing conversation in which Bobo answered a number of questions around the theme of "The Day."
THE DAY you delivered a perfect game.
- There is no perfect game. Once, with the junior French national team, during a tournament in Mannheim
(Germany), we played the US in quarter-finals. Tony was absent, I scored 30. We lost by one. A good
performance... individual performance!
THE DAY of your first "Marseillaise" (French National Anthem).
- Junior European championship, in Zadar. Moving. They didn't play it before the podium. I didn't make
believe and I didn't sing along then. Nowadays, I do sing.
THE DAY you first heard about the NBA.
- Saying I was born with a basketball in my hands sounds cliché, but it's exactly that. My mother [Elisabeth
Diaw-Riffiod, generally accepted as the greatest post player of her generation] was a fan of Julius Erving. I was still in the cradle when she took me to her training sessions and games in Mont-de-Marsan.
THE DAY you made her the proudest.
- Last year, when we won the European championship. I know because she had never said it before.
THE DAY you joined Spurs.
- A turning point. I left Charlotte in March 2012, in good terms, I gave up some of my salary to sign in a
club where I'd have a chance to contend for a title. I crashed on Tony's couch for 6 months until my contract
was extended.
Read the rest on http://www.poundingtherock.com/2014/11/3/7084839/interview-enigmatic-boris-diaw-translated
THE DAY you delivered a perfect game.
- There is no perfect game. Once, with the junior French national team, during a tournament in Mannheim
(Germany), we played the US in quarter-finals. Tony was absent, I scored 30. We lost by one. A good
performance... individual performance!
THE DAY of your first "Marseillaise" (French National Anthem).
- Junior European championship, in Zadar. Moving. They didn't play it before the podium. I didn't make
believe and I didn't sing along then. Nowadays, I do sing.
THE DAY you first heard about the NBA.
- Saying I was born with a basketball in my hands sounds cliché, but it's exactly that. My mother [Elisabeth
Diaw-Riffiod, generally accepted as the greatest post player of her generation] was a fan of Julius Erving. I was still in the cradle when she took me to her training sessions and games in Mont-de-Marsan.
THE DAY you made her the proudest.
- Last year, when we won the European championship. I know because she had never said it before.
THE DAY you joined Spurs.
- A turning point. I left Charlotte in March 2012, in good terms, I gave up some of my salary to sign in a
club where I'd have a chance to contend for a title. I crashed on Tony's couch for 6 months until my contract
was extended.
Read the rest on http://www.poundingtherock.com/2014/11/3/7084839/interview-enigmatic-boris-diaw-translated