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Winning at Madison Square Garden will now no longer be clean this year, warns Evan Fournier⚠️

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The New York Knicks guard told Tout le sport about his new franchise and his ambitions, just before the start of the 2021-2022 NBA season.




After a summer with the French team in Tokyo, Evan Fournier has put his bags on the side of New York. Arrived as a loose agent in the course of the summer time season withinside the Knicks, the local of Val-de-Marne is making ready for his first season withinside the Big Apple, and the mythical Madison Square Garden, his new playground. 

All Sports: How does it feel to start the NBA season?

 I'm very excited to play against Boston, for the opening of the season, it's a great game. You can tell the fans are hot, they were already loud in the pre-season games. There is an excitement around the team, it's very nice.

What does it mean to play in this mythical room of Madison Square Garden?

It's special to explain, it's a special venue. There is an electric powered atmosphere, it's far special from different basketball halls. We know it because there have been so many great events, I think of Mohamed Ali's fights, I think of all the concerts it has hosted. Just being there, looking around, it's a special feeling.

It's kind of like a stand-up comedy show, where the audience is in the dark, and the court is lit up in the middle. Normally, in basketball halls, it's not like that, you see the fans in a kind of gradient. Here it's really black and white, it's like a show, like a theater. And the fans are connoisseurs, so obviously, when there are great actions, commitment, you feel that they are there to push you, and not just to watch a game.


Was it a dream to play on this room with the Knicks jersey?

Dreaming is a big word, but it's true that I've thought about it more than once. My wife and I, whenever we visited New York, we thought it would be really cool to play there. You get out of the gym, you're in the middle of the city, you can go to restaurants, walk around, go to Central Park.

The Knicks are a mythical franchise that has struggled for the last seven or eight years, that was not successful, and that took a big step forward last season. The aim of this season is so that it will do even better, there's a huge wearing project to take up. I think we have a good team, there is a lot to do, so it's even more exciting for me.

I think it will fit with the public, I am a player with a lot of fighting spirit, who gives everything, it will be felt, and I think they will appreciate me for that. My first steps with inside the metropolis and with inside the membership went very well.. The adaptation was not difficult, I am someone from the urban environment, I like the city, the energy, the intensity. I already feel at home.

There are eleven French basketball gamers withinside the NBA this year, will we have a take a observe them otherwise because the silver medal on the Olympics?I'm not the one to ask that question (laughs). I can only rely on my personal experience, but it's true that since I came back, I had a lot of congratulations, not only from players, but also from fans, from people in New-York, who congratulate me for the Olympics. I've been teased a bit too, of course, because we lost to them in the final. But it's nice, it makes me want to continue to build something with the French team.


 


What is your ambition for this season? To become again a team that can fight for the title?

I am not someone who likes to project himself, as a team, on such a long season. There are 82 games, and so many parameters that come into play, including injuries. We are clearly not the favorites in the East, but I think we can annoy people, in the style of a scratch. We have a very defensive and intense profile, coming to win at home will not be easy this year.

I'm coming into a new franchise, the expectations of the fans or the journalists are new to me. I ask my teammates if it's comparable to what we had last year. From their feedback, clearly, on the fan side, you feel like there's something going on. New York is a basketball town, they're really into the Knicks, beyond the Yankees (baseball), the Rangers (ice hockey). That makes me happy, that's what you want as a player.

We understand you as a pacesetter withinside the French team, do you need to breed that below the Knicks jersey?

Of course I do. I am someone who has always had a leadership role, I like the responsibilities, it changes me, it makes me better. When you arrive in a brand new group, that's already built, it isn't the very best thing, however it will likely be as much as me to impose myself 

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