An hour before the start of the event, spectators were flocking to Paris Bercy with already a lot of excitement, and the relief to see the event maintained.
It came close to it: on Monday, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced the return of a 2,000-seat sanitary gauge for sporting events and the closure of refreshments from January 3, for three weeks.
“A good time before a long time”
“We offered my son the place four days ago for Christmas. He unpacked it at the foot of the tree, and we hoped to be able to come despite the restrictions and the evolution of the Covid ”, breathes Axel Toulouse, a 42-year-old SNCF agent.
“It’s a good time before a long time, so we will take advantage of it,” says Cléo Tuyeras, who came with her sister and her father for the annual French basketball festival.
In the room, the shadow of the Covid-19 still hovers over the meeting: messages encouraging spectators to respect barrier gestures are projected on the four giant screens which overlook the field, as the stands fill up.
But the show resumes its rights, and a thrill of excitement runs through the spans of Bercy when the lights go out to make way for the countdown signifying the start of the festivities.
Spiderman hovers over a motorbike
The atmosphere is heated by the competition of leaders, won by the American rear of Elan Béarnais Justin Bibbins, quicker to tame the route made of slaloms and various shots than his competitors.
Very quickly, the meeting so awaited by the spectators – masked on the whole – begins … Except for the French selection, which completely misses its start of the match and finds itself behind 13-0 in the middle of the first quarter, despite defense almost absent from the world selection, as often during the All Star Game.
So Vincent Collet, chosen to train the French, put down a time-out, at the end of which the leader of Asvel Elie Okobo finally scored the first three points for his team, on an outside shot.
Three points is ultimately what separated the two teams at half-time (49-46 for the selection of the best foreigners).
The all stars then gave way to the highlight of the show: the dunks competition.
The prize for the most beautiful stunt went to Dylan Affo Mama, who, decked out in a Spiderman hood, jumped over a motorcycle and its driver before dunking with both hands, in an electric atmosphere. This figure notably enabled the Tours winger to win the most spectacular of competitions.
In the third quarter, Elie Okobo justified the confidence of the public, who selected him for this match, by catching fire: he slammed a dunk then two consecutive award-winning shots in step-backs.
He even did better at the end of the match, equalizing a three-point imbalance two seconds from time to snatch extra time, exploding Bercy.
Alas, that was not enough, and the foreign selection was imposed at the end of the extension 111-110.
But for the public of Paris Bercy, the challenge was different: to enjoy the atmosphere of a sold-out room once again.