Agony ends for Parker and France

There was no other option for France at this summer's EuroBasket in Lithuania than to clinch a top-six finish.

A national team that had underachieved for several years had to seal a place at the 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament or this generation of Les Bleus would go down as one of the biggest disappointments in international basketball history.

Failure would have been a death knell for a squad that had oozed with talent but failed to make the grade.

Much to the relief of French basketball, Tony Parker and Co did even better.

They reached the Final to qualify directly for the London Games.

After seven wins in their first eight games, France overcame nemesis Greece in a very tricky Quarter-Final, 64-56, and then shot down Russia, 79-71, in the last four to reach the title game.

At the end of that Semi-Final triumph, point guard Parker, who had poured in 22 points, knelt down and bowed his head for several seconds.

With a clinched right fist resting against his forward and his left hand on the floor, the 29-year-old French sports icon had a quiet celebration.

"It's been a long time that I've waited for this," he said.

"I had tears in my eyes."

After the win over the Russians, Parker and his teammates made their way to the section of fans cheering "Allez Les Bleus, Allez Les Bleus" and joined in the party atmosphere.

"I was so happy that I jumped into the stands with my brothers and my family," Parker said.

France won the silver medal at Sydney 2000 but didn't make it to the Athens or Beijing Olympics.

Against Italy at EuroBasket 2003 in Sweden, France were upset in the bronze-medal game and missed out on qualification for Greece.

After blowing a big lead in the last minute against Greece and missing out on a chance to play in the Final of EuroBasket 2005, Parker and France competed at the event two years later in Spain and fell to Russia in the Quarter-Finals.

Coached by Claude Bergeaud at the time, France then imploded, crashing to heavy defeats to Croatia and Slovenia.

The teams that came in fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh in Madrid went to the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

France finished eighth.

"We've been down, we have suffered defeats and disappointments," Parker said.

"But little by little, we have avenged them.

"First against Greece, then against Russia."

Parker, who has won NBA championships with the San Antonio Spurs, is the most accomplished player in the country but by no means are Les Bleus are a one-man team.

High-flying forward Nicolas Batum was a superstar at the EuroBasket in Lithuania, and slick ball-handling and explosive scorer Nando De Colo came up with some huge performances to help the team reach London.

Mickael Gelabale, Boris Diaw, Florent Pietrus, Joakim Noah, Ali Traore and Charles Kahudi all had significant roles for the French under coach Vincent Collet.

So did center Ronny Turiaf, who despite breaking his hand in the build-up to the EuroBasket, stayed with the team for the entire summer and made sure they had a veteran presence to help with the development of Kevin Seraphin, a star on the rise.

If there was a blemish on the French performance in Lithuania, it was the 96-69 humiliation against Spain in their Second Round encounter, a game in which Collet rested Parker and Noah instead of going hard at a national team that had thrashed them in the EuroBasket 2009 Quarter-Final.

France played better against Spain in the gold-medal game this year but still lost, 98-85.

Nevertheless, the French wanted to reach London and they did.

Now they'll be hoping to make the most of the opportunity.

It's the second time they will play at the Olympics in the British capital as they captured a silver medal at the Games staged there in 1948.

Four years later and Les Bleus came in eighth in Helsinki, and then in 1956 and '60 they finished fourth and 10th, respectively, in Melbourne and Rome.

After an 11th place showing at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, France reached the Final in Sydney.