The game starts at 3 p.m. ET for Les Bleus!
The France men’s national basketball team plays Australia today in Orléans at 3 p.m. ET. You can watch the game online at the NBA’s YouTube channel.
Washington Wizards guard Bilal Coulibaly has been representing Les Bleus but hasn’t been scoring much, though we shouldn’t be concerned about that. He is brought into be more of a defensive specialist for them and will get one more chance against the Boomers tonight.
Hopefully France will get one more victoire tonight!
Also, off topic but still FIBA related. The Belgium women’s national basketball team will play Japan later today in a friendly at 10:30 a.m. ET in Reims, France. We won’t be able to see this one on TV.
Japan today at 4.30 pm.#basketballbelgium #crelansport #omdathetkan pic.twitter.com/GbFb5VOqsy
— Belgian Cats (@TheBelgianCats) July 21, 2024
I’m not sure if Mystics guard Julie Vanloo will play, but if so, she may be matched up against former Mystics guard Rui Machida, who played for Washington in the 2022 season.
Today is also an important day in Belgian history. It’s Belgian National Day (Nationale feestdag van België / Fête nationale belge / Belgischer Nationalfeiertag) in Dutch, French and German, respectively. On July 21, 1831, Leopold I, a German noble, took the Belgians’ request to become their King when the Southern Dutch provinces rebelled against King Willem I of the House of Orange-Nassau. You can read more about here from Wikipedia.
In short, today is basically Belgian Independence Day, their “4th of July.”
So that’s all I have.
ALLEZ FRANCE! AND HAPPY BELGIAN NATIONAL DAY TO THOSE WHO CELEBRATE!