ERWAN ABAUTRET, celui qui a TOUT QUITTÉ pour créer FIRST TEAM 🎙️🏀 – REBOND EP4

ERWAN ABAUTRET, celui qui a TOUT QUITTER pour créer FIRST TEAM 🎙️🏀 – REBOND EP4

🎙 Épisode 4 – REBOND : Avec Erwan Abautret

Bienvenue dans le quatrième épisode de notre série REBOND, où nous explorons des parcours inspirants qui redéfinissent les possibles dans le monde du sport. 🎯

Dans cet épisode, nous recevons Erwan Abautret, le visionnaire derrière First Team, un média basket qui a su gagner la confiance des joueurs et révolutionner le paysage médiatique.

Il nous partage son audacieux pari de tout quitter pour créer un média 100 % authentique, ses convictions, et les secrets du succès de First Team. 💬

👉 Qu’est-ce que REBOND ?

C’est une série dédiée aux sportifs qui prouvent qu’il y a toujours un moyen de rebondir après sa carrière. Un espace d’échange inspirant pour mettre en lumière des parcours uniques et démontrer que chaque défi est une opportunité. 🚀

👉 Engagez-vous avec nous !

1️⃣ Abonnez-vous pour ne rien manquer des prochains épisodes.
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CHAPITRAGE :

00:00 – 🎙️ Introduction & qui est Erwan Abautret ?
01:10 – 🏀 De joueur de basket à passionné de médias sportifs
02:30 – 📺 L’expérience BeIN Sports et le déclic entrepreneurial
04:15 – ❌ Pourquoi il ne voulait pas devenir journaliste
06:10 – 🛠️ La création de First Team avec Thomas Dufant
08:00 – 🔥 Franc-parler, clivage, et identité forte du média
10:00 – 🧱 Monter un média sans réseau ni filtre
11:50 – 📊 Le rôle de YouTube et des algorithmes dans la montée en puissance
13:30 – 👟 Comment First Team a capté la jeunesse du sport
15:00 – 💼 Business model : indépendance, studio, partenariats
17:00 – 🧑‍💼 Structurer l’équipe et passer d’un projet passion à une entreprise
19:00 – 🏅 Le soutien de Nicolas Batum et la reconnaissance pro
21:00 – ⚡ Polémiques, liberté de ton et prise de position
23:00 – 🎯 Être crédible sans langue de bois dans le journalisme sportif
25:00 – 📚 La culture basket comme fondation éditoriale
26:45 – 🤝 Travailler avec la LNB, FIBA, clubs pros : les coulisses
28:15 – 🧠 Victor Wembanyama : comment First Team a obtenu l’exclu
30:00 – 🤝 Gagner la confiance des joueurs pro
31:30 – 📣 Diversification : food, foot, F1, rugby… la vision multi-sport
33:30 – 🎬 Être producteur, pas juste animateur
35:00 – 📰 L’ambition d’un vrai média libre, engagé et sans filtre
36:30 – 🔴 L’après YouTube : podcast, live, formats natifs
38:15 – ❤️ Trouver l’équilibre entre passion, business et exigence
40:00 – 🚀 Recrutement, entourage, garder l’énergie pour durer
42:00 – 🔭 La vision d’Erwan sur l’avenir des médias sportifs
44:00 – 🧑‍🎓 Ce qu’il dirait à un jeune qui veut créer un média
46:00 – 💡 Le plus gros apprentissage après 10 ans de création
48:00 – 🛣️ Dernier mot : rester soi-même, aller au bout du projet

I wanted to talk, I want to tell things, I want, I have things that come to me from there and I want to say it. Actually, I had a lot of ideas. Digital exploded and YouTube became what it was. I thought, damn, there’s a way to do something different. We watched the account grow to 15,000 subscribers, 20,000. We were happy, you see. And it’s true that today, I watch more, never did it for success. but we promise it will never be. We’ll make you laugh, we’re not comedians, We are guys who love basketball, who live basketball 2000% and we transcribe that. but first of all, we analyze. I don’t want to be a journalist to sensations. I’m here to talk about basketball. But having exclusives to do clickbait to speak vulgarly, it’s not us, it will never be us, Rebound is the first podcast that gives a voice to former professional athletes and amateurs who have become entrepreneurs. Erwan Abautret, a former professional basketball player, is now the media face of basketball in France. with his legendary frankness. He is the host and co-creator of the online media First Team, which has 195K subscribers on YouTube. and 121K on Instagram. We have the pleasure to welcome Erwan Botrel. He will tell us about his truly inspiring career. I say it often, but the guests we get to welcome here on the Comme Sport podcast are truly inspiring. But I’ll let Erwan introduce himself. Erwan, can you introduce yourself and, more specifically, your educational background? My school career, yes, but in the real live broadcast, it will be quick and will last ten minutes. So, I’m Erwan Abautret. I’m 42 years old, I’m from 1982, a great year for French basketball. Tony Parker, Boris Pietrus, whom you knew very well. I’m a former professional basketball player, you say that, that’s nice. Well, it’s a bit. We’re more on the semi-amateur side than on the professional side. So I obviously played for a very long time. I met when we were young, when we were fifteen or sixteen, in the southwest, when you were near the Elan, and I was from Biarritz. We crossed paths again for a while and then for a while through mutual contacts. And then I made my own little life and arrived in Paris in 2009 to become a journalist. And so, after a few adventures here and there, I joined Bein Sports in 2012 to work on “Une vie extra” (An Extra Life). Thanks to Rémi Reverchon, that was a real springboard for me. And then, at the same time, I created a podcast called “Le Outcast” with Thomas, which was fun and… And so, three years later, I resigned from our… I didn’t renew my contract, we stopped working with Dailymotion and Basket USA and we embarked on the adventure that is now inevitably called combat. In fact, it must be said, you were originally from Marseille, you grew up in Marseille or Paris, you didn’t live in Paris or Marseille anymore. I think that’s it, I’ve made friends. And you know, Patrice, you knew me, you knew me the first months when I arrived from Marseille, so I was really there with all my Marseille baggage that I love, that I claim. But what’s good about basketball too, is that it allows you, you knew it, to discover other cultures and the culture of the Basque Country. Me, Alma, she spoke to me, she spoke to me because I met fantastic people there and they are my friends from high school. I still go back there every summer and by chance, Thomas’s in-laws are also English now. So, since 98 and my arrival in Biarritz, I always continue in the southwest, whether it’s in Biarritz, Bordeaux with people we know. So there you go. And I wanted to come to Paris, I wanted to discover the capital and I don’t regret it. Yeah, I have a question that’s going to be stupid, do you support Marseille or Paris? Do you go to the Parc des Princes? Already on a counter, I go to the park and I go often. I often see Paris lose and I’m always there for Marseille, that will never change anything. I worked hard and believe me I’ve seen Champions League defeats. I used to arrive at work in the morning whistling, seeing the guys’ crestfallen faces. It was also great to be able to talk with you, to chat with you today. I also admire your career, the career you’ve had as a former athlete, you say you’re not professional, but I believe that from the moment you live off your passion, you’re professional. Can you tell us a little bit? When you were young, you were talking about, you wanted to be a journalist, but did you even want to follow your dream? What was it? Was it to arrive at Bein Sports, to work there all your life, or was it precisely to go to the United States, maybe to a foreign country, to come to Paris? When did you become a tutu? Did you want to make this change? It’s actually done in stages. At the beginning, when I left before the training center, I was fifteen and a half. I left Marseille. I wanted to be a professional, I played for the French team. Is there less of the Canebière kids thing? Absolutely, because it’s even further back than, at the time, it was untouchable. You, who were an athlete for example, I don’t know if one day you didn’t dream of this post, but in any case, I wanted to play in prey and I wanted to be in the French team. I didn’t know this world at all. I played in Marseille and I didn’t realize. Well after, when you play against Mickaël Pietrus, in your first friendly match, you realize in fact the gaps that there can be. But there were several dreams, several stages. First, it was to become a professional, it didn’t happen as I would have liked. And then after that, there was the desire. There’s the question of what do I want to do next? I want, I want to be a journalist. I love it, I like it, I want to talk, but I have everything to learn. I don’t have any networks, I want to be a coach because I like coaching, because I find that I like tactics. And then I think that with the coaches we’ve met, we say to ourselves that there’s room. But. But at the same time, we’re going to meet the same people who upset us a little or with whom we didn’t get along as players, I’m going to go, I’m going, I’m going into the unknown. Besides, that’s what I’ve always done. I’m going into the unknown, I chose journalism. And then there you go. I did the southwest. When I finished second in Mont de Marsan, I did Presse Océan when I was third in Nantes and then after that I arrived in Paris. In 2009 under the advice of my aunt who is in Marseille. And then for the big adventure, I don’t know anyone. And then I do internships and so on. But. But even there, you see, Beinsport, for me it’s far away, it’s because it’s me. I dream of Canal Beinsport, it doesn’t exist yet and. And when it happens, indeed, when I return to Beinsport, I say to myself that’s it, I’m there, my mother calls me. Well done! You made it, Beinsport. You’re joining a big company like that. That’s it, they’ll give you a fixed-term contract in two or three years. As is customary. And you know, it’s a freeway. Well no. Well no, because I think that’s actually how it is, and in fact, I had lots of ideas. Digital exploded and YouTube became what it was. I said to myself, damn, there’s a way to do something different. I want to do different things. Meeting Thomas helped me a lot too and so to give me some. When you start to understand a little bit how digital works, what there is to do, the meetings and then you say to yourself we stop everything and we launch our own channel, our own, We’re going to be our own boss and we have too many things to do that are not said or done on the side. And I actually love exactly what you’re trying to tell me, I remember you as a player when we arrive in Sud-Ouest. You see, I come from Paris and you know when you come from Paris, you have, you have a certain lifestyle, you have a way of thinking. And me, when I go to the Sud-Ouest and we play against Bayonne, Biarritz, Biarritz, we play against Biarritz. And I see a Marseillais with an accent and with an attitude. You know, I wasn’t provocative, but you were different from the others and I always said to myself, hey, here it’s abused because you were really different from the others. And today, that’s really your strength, your frank speaking. When I listen to you under pressure, but I like listening to you because you say what you think, you say it without jargon. And has that always been your strength? Does being so outspoken ever come to harm you? Well, Patrice, if it harmed me, obviously it harmed me. If I’m not there with you, my friends, hoping, I know it’s going to harm me at some point. Afterwards, it worked on me a lot because, before it became my strength today, I think that it was always my way in any case to express myself at times and to. And to defend myself at times too, in relation to myself, to my education, to my origins, in this very special city that is Marseille, it was, it was not always well received because it can be scary at times. A big guy, 1.96 meters tall, running around on the field with a Marseille accent, that can be scary. And I know that’s scary and that I haven’t always been good at managing it. But. But that’s who I am, actually. It’s not something I invented, something I came out with to make it sound cool. So it could certainly have been detrimental as a player. But today, in the media that I do with age, with the mastery of emotions too, Today, that’s my strength. But in fact, I didn’t force anything. It’s the ME. I think that the guy we knew, who had this desire to do things well or it’s always been that as a basketball player, as a journalist, it’s above all to do things well with my with my baggage. And then, as you grow up, meet people, discover other cultures, well, you adjust a little. Or at least you adapt. But I’m still that guy with that frankness. And indeed, you speak frankly, that’s clear and straightforward. But it was still a success. If we look at your career, we see what you’ve done today, but how? How did the meeting with you and Thomas come about? Because I know that at the beginning you’re just throwing yourself into it. In fact, you’re throwing yourself into the video. At the beginning, no, actually, Thomas, he’s 90, we’re eight years apart. When I arrive in Paris, I have to find a club for a bit of money, a bit of an apartment. But if you know, I’m still in the game so I say to myself and Malakoff offers me that. So a small salary and an apartment with the calls from the town hall, it’s changed, it changes the game when you arrive in Paris, you see, I saw for five years, I had an apartment in, I had an apartment in Malakoff, very good, but it changed my life. You see, it allowed me to do nothing for months, but at least I knew where to sleep. So that was really important. And so Thomas, I met him in Malakoff, but he’s 20 years old, I’m 28 so we’re not at all in the same, in the same timeline of our lives. And then after three years, I want to put together a podcast and with all the guys there, with all the guys who are equipped, there’s Fabrice Piriac’s brother, there’s Nice who’s there too, you see, there are lots of guys, we talk about basketball in the bus, we have heated debates. I say to myself, but in fact that’s what’s missing, that’s what we need to create, that’s the tone we like. And finally, Thomas, who was young and who participates, who still participates in these debates, I feel a way of structuring his remarks, a way of being fair because he’s a guy who knows basketball well, he’s a very good player and he’s a playmaker. So I felt who he was. There was me who was a bit of a fire who entered the galley shouting louder and he always managed to exist, but one by one, by another style. And I said to myself damn and what’s more I liked him. On the field, we got along well on the game. I said to myself wouldn’t you like to do that? And we started like that on a podcast called Arnaud, which lasted a few months and learned it’s Basketball USA. But Thomas met her, it happened like that. We still have to put things in perspective. It’s been about fifteen years, I’d say twelve years in two years. But I mean, twelve years ago, you had to be a pioneer to think about podcasts, to think I’m going to launch a media outlet. You see, I often think about sweat. You know, in martial arts, combat sports I think. You see, torso, I compare it a little to the sweat you’re coming into. You may lack credibility, but you bring a different tone, a different approach that appeals to a new audience. Did you perceive it like that or did you really say to yourself, this is what I’m going to do no matter what? Is that what’s interesting? I’ve always followed basketball, I read every Basket Hebdo, you Remember back then? Don’t worry, I was following all that, watching what was happening on Canal+, a fan of Georges. I had to be a fan of Jacques. But I still had the impression. I saw certain faces emerge, I said to myself, don’t talk about basketball players. That, that, that speaks to me, that, that doesn’t speak to us, it’s not us. And I said to myself, but maybe I didn’t have the career I would have hoped for, but on the other hand, I heard the speeches, I know, I know how basketball works, I know how investing works, I know how it goes in a game. I heard, even if I didn’t manage to put it on the court, which isn’t the case for everyone. It doesn’t matter, it still gave me tools for and I said to myself but there’s a real lack of basketball embodying journalists obviously. And in TV, it’s true that we’re very much in consultants. If you haven’t had a career, you can’t really have a say, you know? Or you’re in a case of journalism and And in fact we succeeded. But because digital and the explosion of YouTube led to that, we managed to create a space, new people, a bit of new players with Thomas and me. That is to say that we are mid-level N2 players. Between Thomas I am 23, I did a bit of N2 but we know, he did training centers and all that, so we know basketball and we created this kind of thing between the journalist and the consultant and we did something new and in the end people when they watch us and this is what Ben Monclar tells me when they continue to tell us but we don’t care in Whether you are a journalist or a consultant, I listen to you, I want to hear from you. Yeah, exactly. And you? That’s exactly it. I want to hear from you. You were talking about that time, three days ago. I said, “He’s still the person we listened to and who remains the reference for us.” The 80s. And then there was Jacques Monclar, there was, there was also David Cozette. At the time, I think so too, but it’s true that there wasn’t much renewal. And personally, when I listened to Jacques Monclar, I didn’t necessarily identify with him. I know he had a coaching career, I know he had a playing career, but I didn’t know him. David Cozette, whom I adored on Sport Plus at the time. I think there was Canal+ too, but me. But it’s true that I didn’t identify with it and at some point you arrive, you have that tone. But I tell myself you still have to be ballsy, you ballsy to say to yourself it’s going to work or at least I want to make my place in this way. Whereas when you say ballsy or maybe me I don’t tell you desperate because the word is too negative and my man is my friend, that was the only thing to do. After a while, there is this. I am not a guy, I am not a mold guy, I’m not a guy and I’m going to journalism school. I’m not. You know me, I already know myself as a player. I’m not a guy who fits into the mold, who. And so I said to myself, I have to have. I saw guys creating things on YouTube, but in fact I’m going to create what I want to be and what I want to do. And that’s what it’s going to be mostly. So that was more. So in addition, when I create that two months later I come back, I could have stopped but. And even. Ah well, I see, that was a fantastic springboard. It structured me on how to develop videos editorially. Where are we going, what are we doing? You see? So you take a lot of things, you don’t take everything because you also want to do it your way. But. But in fact, I had written, I wanted to create something with my vision, with what I wanted to tell, what I wanted to do. And then especially by building a team in our image, with Thomas. I wanted to create something that didn’t exist and I have the impression that in any case it was the will of the moment. And you say that’s the will of the moment? Okay, fine, but today you still have 195,000 subscribers, is that it? I was watching, I had fun because today, in football, it’s growing enormously. I’m thinking of After Foot, you see, I’m not saying I don’t understand you. Riolo Okay, but Riolo has his own way of approaching things and ultimately we listen to him, whether we listen to him for good or bad. Today they have 220,000 subscribers so you see that has 25,000 more subscribers than you have on YouTube. I watched it again on the train when I arrived. That you walk on the fire of God. Listen, it’s funny to say that because I still remember the first years at Webedia. We watched the account grow to 15,000 subscribers, 20,000. We were happy, you see. And it’s true that today, I watch more, you see, because I know that we have, because the stakes are a little bit elsewhere too. But it’s true that we meet a lot of people and frankly, if you were at the Olympic Games in Lille, when with Thomas and Steph would go out for a drink between the two matches. But the number of people we met who would tell us great, well done and everything. In fact, I just always said no because I didn’t do it for that, you know. No, but I actually say I did that because I have I wanted to talk, I want to tell things, I want, I have things that come to me from there and I want to say it. I didn’t do it for recognition. So when you live in Paris, when it works, when it was recognized, obviously, there are lots of things around that go with it and so much the better. And that’s one of the perks, but it’s one of the perks. In fact, I think that’s also Thomas’s success, is that we never did it for success. We did it because we wanted to, because since the first audio podcast in my apartment, we’ve had a blast doing it. So still penalize the numbers in you. When I’m talking to you about these figures today, I also want to talk about the business model, the business model on social networks. You bring us free content. We call that. I call it freemium because ultimately there is, there is a free side, but on the paid side compared to brands, this model is quite criticized, because, you see, I say, for example, you’re going to have advertisements, there, you have advertisements, you’re going to, you’re going to finance your work after the advertising. Have you ever been given good, good, or bad feedback about the funding of your media? Sometimes people get a little upset. When we put ads, when we put ads right in the middle of certain videos, when people like the somewhat authentic side and immediately get the impression that when we put ads, we get the impression that we’re taking advantage of what I can understand. Now, the reality is that for us too, it’s been Webedia from the beginning. And today, in our new home, a new representative of a flex, we are in quality studios. What we produce is qualitative in terms of image. or a moment. The slightest camera rolling around in your room has its limits. And today, it has become our job. There’s this person who works every day. There are thirteen freelancers who come to the other media. After a while, elbow grease and the love of glamour, of sport, it has its limits. So today, yes, it has become a business. It has become our life’s project. And it has to be linked to significant income, otherwise we don’t do anything anymore. I totally agree with you, but you see, these business models are not necessarily accepted by the general public, it depends. But when I say that I have generally, I’m not necessarily talking about your media because we like to have quality content easily on YouTube. Ultimately, it’s YouTube that is financed with premium subscriptions through advertising and you have brought or are bringing content. But behind it, as you say, there’s this person who works. So I understand it completely. But how do you make this switch? Because here you’re talking about Webedia. I’m learning things at the same time as you. How do you make this switch from saying, well, now I’m going to make a job out of it, I’m going to earn money through my activity. How do you do the basics? The climb accompanies the switch. In fact, it happens when you decide to. We were paid at Dailymotion, we took €800 per month each. It’s good, but it’s good to give figures. I was at Beinsport so I was on what we call fixed-term contracts. Uh. So it’s a mix between fixed-term contracts but without the slightly annoying stuff and a fixed-term contract renewed every year. And I was getting my last year, I was getting 2300 net. Ah well so actually I have 800 balls from Dailymotion and frankly when I was getting out of the mess I was getting out of with my 400 balls, basketball and editing with APL, I can tell you that it was I was the king of oil but oh well. And so, when we stop all that and we switch completely to Webedia and we have the well-integrated studios, the guys who welcome you, But there is a commercial management behind it too who tells you well, that’s good what you’re doing, now we’re going to have to monetize, we’re going to have to bring in sponsors, it’s going to have to live. And on that, Webedia, they were fantastic. For five years, they gave us money every month for the time we were developing, developing the channel. But, but when does that start? Really when we go to Webedia and change our name and call ourselves Steam? That’s our job, that’s the test and we’re there every day at the studio and it’s the only project of our lives. And that’s advice in relation. You see, there are a lot of young people today who want to. I don’t want to, I’m not going to talk about you because I don’t know Webedia. I’m also thinking of content creators. No, I don’t mean influencer, but I mean content creator. And today, precisely, it’s becoming a profession. You have to be paid, you provide content, but how? You, you don’t have character? How do you take this information, to say you see, I like doing what I do, but I have to monetize it and I have to delegate this part to an agency that I have to trust 100%. How do you do it, concretely? How do you take it at that moment? You say go for it. I talk a lot and Wax, I don’t know if you see who it is. I see that he’s a guitarist who’s a fan of a post we have with who used to come see us in the Dailymotion audience at the time. We met like that and he’s a guy who knows the YouTube Game very well, who was very close to Webedia and at one point, that’s it, we talk a lot. They explain to us all the economic models, all the money we can make around it, even if once again, it’s not our primary goal. But if we’re going to make it our job, we have to, we have to, we have to live. And in my opinion, it’s a decision to say to ourselves ok, there instead of being a good journalist and having less to be an employee, to have my salary increased every month and to do what I do and it was great via Beinsport, I said to myself no but in fact I want more, I have the impression that we can do more but do more. And also having added a bubble in your head as an entrepreneur to say to yourself, well, you also have to go and get money. Okay, fine. Yeah, yeah. Well, after me, I think we don’t have a choice either because otherwise. Well, yes, grow if you want to grow, you see, to have cameras, to have staff, editors, directors, equipment, because we, the studio, have a FLOX there, but here we have a control room, we have ideas, we have a sound engineer, we have a director, we have an editor. Well, guys, after a while, you see, it’s cool to watch, but I’m not the one on the couch. We play and that’s how it is, you see. And how does it work for you? I think you were also easily accepted by the pro players. I’m thinking of Nicolas Batum who gave you a helping hand. You yourself, who was in the United States before, you come, it’s a helping hand. Was this helping hand done through him? I was paid. He asked for visibility or was he doing it because it was Erwan, who is Thomas, who asked how it works. So, well, Nicolas never asked for €1, so he does it because he loves it, and Nico will be a great consultant at the end of his career. Nico does it because he loves it and it’s true that he loves it because when he looked at us, he said to us, damn, what is Sega, they are credible. Yeah and I’ll tell you that for me, but Nico is the best example. But when you meet a lot of guys from Betclic and everything, all the guys, the guys, it’s heavy. Guys, it’s good, guys, you’re fair, you’re right in what you say. And the best of the best was Nicolas Lang. Nicolas Lang. He keeps telling me, even if I don’t want to believe it for a second. But I tell the anecdote because it’s funny. He keeps telling me in the media the enemy does You’re the one who changed the Olympic Games. What you’re saying is No, no, you said it was necessary from the beginning, you’re beating me up, you’re saying I have to put boy in four. You have to stop playing and everything, it’s you. And when I allow myself Vincent, he understood well, he knew, he did it. Now I’m sure it’s you who changed things. So it makes me laugh that professional players have this view of what we say. So. But when I tell you we’re not just boasters, we know the game. So we say it too. People say ah that’s cool, it’s funny to see you. Okay, it’s funny, but we’ll never make a promise. We’re going to make you laugh, we’re not comedians, we’re guys who love basketball, who have lived basketball 2000% since we were little and we’re transcribing that. And obviously, there’s smiles, there’s good humor, but above all, we analyze. But I still love it. It’s when you rant, rant. Afterwards, you see, with Thomas, you’re a good pair. You said you have a different approach, and I like your outbursts because I know that when you get carried away, you’ll go for it. And it’s true that. In the first part, they get crushed, etc. And you say things bluntly, even to the point of involving them. The coach And that cost me dearly. Oh yeah, yeah, that’s a good question because I’m thinking, you have the openings, you see players, but you’re going to talk frankly about the coach, about the staff. What kind of feedback are you going to get, exactly? Were you banned from the gym? Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. I know the people at the Federation well, the players of the French team. I know them very well, too. I know that you know that the sequence on Vincent was and the national anthem against Germany in the group in Lille where I have a visual feeling that is terrible. And the scenario of the match proves me right, at least in what I imagine to film, to film a lot between the players of the French team. They all sent the thing a little. When we looked at the whole destroyed lake, Vincent It’s not the goal to destroy Vincent. But well, at that moment, I had. I’m not Steve. On the other hand, I was told. Mrs. Brand told me that I had gone too far. Others told me that it was borderline. Everyone said that. Others told me, others told me no, it was Listen, you do what you have to do there. Anyway, everyone has their own opinion on that, but in any case, I did it because I had seen, it came like that and I wanted to share that feeling. Afterwards, after Vincent Vincent Collet, I ran into him again on the evening of the final and so, well, I was talking with Pascal Donnadieu. Then he came, he came around a bit, like I’m fine, congratulations, don’t tell me congratulations. Then we started talking because he’s an open guy and everything. There are some, we talked, he told me what was on his mind because I’m thinking about touching her and it’s normal and I think I can understand it. So I told him I could have a right of reply. He said yes, we talked and everything. That’s it. Afterwards, listen, he’s doing his job, I did mine, I didn’t have the impression of going into something personal, into something private. So listen, I think that’s why we’re also being watched, even if I never say to myself I’m going to create a sensation, sensationalism, you know, I’m going to do something to make it work. No, it came out like that, it came out like that because that’s how I feel. But your personality wants it too, frankly. But that’s what I am in fact. That’s what I’m telling you. Like when, Like when you say, when you see a wild child from Marseille, when you when you were a player, when we are, when we play as cadets against each other, that with had an overflowing desire, it’s always the same. In fact, I don’t calculate, I never say to myself, hey, I’m going to say this, I’m going to make this release, it’s going to work, we’re going to cut it out on the network. Not at all. That’s the worst thing to do. How do I… I’m telling you anyway, if tomorrow I create an online media and the sex in the French team that I talked about comes to see me and takes into consideration or acknowledges everything I told him, am I not saying indirectly? Well, I still managed a little. No, no, but that’s what I was told. I was told yes, but then he actually told me that he had cut himself off from the networks that were sent to him. We know the players, we know them as experts, we know them, we know them. Well, now, the coach, the French team and the photo credits that I know, which is a little more difficult. So, if I ever have a comment on Freddy, if I say right of reply, I’m not sure he’ll say yes or at least it won’t come. But there you go, if we all love the French team, we were, we’ve all experienced fantastic things. And then in the end, even you know, it’s that you shouldn’t have played big, that’s all. We had to put four from the start, period. Yeah, but well, after that the problem is that we have… I think we had a phobia of tall people in our time, there weren’t many tall people, there aren’t many today who are taller than one who are strong and so we don’t really know how we’re not going to talk about basketball now, but we don’t really know how to use it. And you, you say it, you want a guy? 96 Well, a guy 98 play four or five even the first year at Biarritz. After that I had to go to Espoirs to move up, to go far, you. And so you fucked up. Yeah, I remember. Besides, you shot yourself well from three points. A credit to Attention. And besides, I want to talk basketball with you because we are basketball players. But what do you have? A knowledge of European, French, and American basketball? I’m scandalized. I use the word scandalized. You give me the names of the coaches, the assistant coaches, the guy who mop the floor. But then he says to me, but how do you do it? Well, I always read magazines back then. You know, when you read magazines but you didn’t have the internet back then, when at fourteen or fifteen, you throw away magazines, you read them eight times, so in fact everything. So actually, all that was really my thing, basketball. And then after, when you played n2 n3, you earn money, but it’s an unemployed lifestyle, so you spend your life doing nothing with your days, talking to the gym, going there, training. So you watch games, you read magazines, you read… I’ve always loved history. History has always fascinated me at school, and it’s crazy that Thomas is in the same mold as me. Steph, the same, Steph, on Europe and French basketball; he’s really, he’s really unbeatable on the enemy. I think we’re a little more sharp than him on history. But Steph on the Euroleague and so the three of us there are really yeah if it takes to take us on a hot streak but it’s abused. But guys, because you go we play basketball, we know basketball but for you it’s abused in the Euroleague sometimes you give me names in addition to give them the names. And I say to myself but how do you do it? Do you have a title you could give to those who want to get started? Do you do any special monitoring? Is it really just nature? And do you gather information? No. No. I have everything that I looked at, I retained it from the magazines that I read, the magazines that I read. And yet, when I see my school grades, my mother, if she hears, it means are you kidding me? But me, with the magazines I put, I remembered them. The games I watched, I remembered them when I gag her in National. Every Saturday night, every Sunday night, there was the game on CB, so I watched for two years, I watched Spanish basketball, I always watched basketball. These are for France. I’ve been watching it since the 2000s and so on and I remember, What do I like, you know? Is that it? Marc Purée, I I. Yeah, I’m impressed by this level of detail, you know. And today, you have people who have given you a helping hand like Nicolas Batum. But you get to see Victor exclusively. Here’s Victor exclusively, the bear. But it’s crazy. You get to see Mike Pietrus, we know him very well. Mike. You see, in the media, he doesn’t come around often. And I know you’re going to travel to Bordeaux. I think it was so bad. And we got that. I talked about it with him and I said to myself, but the podcast, well the podcast, what’s it like, 3 hours? No, it’s 1 hour 30 minutes in three parts, but I loved it! I think I could watch it for 3 hours And then I said to myself, but guys, what are you? Well! I don’t know if it’s because I know Mike and he doesn’t talk much on the show, but I said to myself, how do you approach him at the beginning of your career? And that’s where I find you guys strong. At the beginning of your career, the highlights. You retrace this moment that you had in common with him and all that in three parts or it lasts 1 hour 30 minutes. And frankly, when I look at the statistics, they are just crazy. I say to myself how do you do it? Honestly? But I admit that I was asking you how you do it. You’re doing well, but I think that there we have a closeness with the players. I think that the players, you said yourself that you didn’t particularly find yourself in David Cozette and Jean-Jacques, even if what he did is very good. I think that the players have this kind of role that we have, Thomas and I, we speak like a journalist, but somewhere we also have We are former players. I think the players feel it like that. So after Mike, it’s different. We’ve been around since we were fifteen, we know how to pull our weight and we were the first to witness it. Pulling our weight like idiots, like crazy for two seasons. The players, they’re there, there’s a feeling. You see. I know that was when we played Sean Ellis and all that, the guys, the journalists, some players, I’m not going to say who they yell at as a sport. Wait, but why do they have everything? Because actually, when he comes, there’s something different. You see, when he comes, there’s something different. We leave the interviews that we develop, it’s really our thing. We are, we are ourselves, we talk as if we were having a drink and we tell, tell ourselves. And above all, it interests us like crazy. You see, when you talk about culture and everything, actually, we’re interested. Tell me, tell me too, tell me that. And today, we’ve gained credibility, notoriety. But you’re talking about the players. But Janelle, that shocks you? Is that the French national team player, the very young one who was who? I am. Sorry, I don’t know. No, that’s not a big deal. There, you see, she came and in the interview she was so happy to do it. But I’m looking at you crazy because today the guys of our generation it’s hard to be me, the 90s there are no more or it’s old guys like Mike to see. But on the other hand the whole generation 2001, 2003, 2004, guys who have been watching us since they were twelve years old now and they have this side they are guys we have known for years because we watched them when we were ten, eleven, twelve years old. That’s the case. Victor That’s the case with Armelle. That’s the case with the Sarr brothers. And that’s new, it opens a new, a new chapter, something, that is to say in fact, these are guys who haven’t bought anything, they look at us and who are small and the relationship, it’s too much. And suddenly they change compared to our guys with whom we played and it’s crazy! So Victor, how? How did you get the exclusion? Victor, Victor, I clearly got the exclusion as a sport. And Issa, Issa, who manages Victor’s image, to whom we are very close, Victor who says, uh, I like them, I listen to them, it’s credible. The parents too, who like us, whom we meet all year long on the Metz side. And then we’re patient, we’re patient, we’re patient, we know it’s going to happen. And because Victor told us that he’s a guy of his word. And then on a public holiday, April at Webedia, no one showed up with Issa, so we were scheduled beforehand. Yes yes anyway. Okay. Yes yes yes no no no no no. And in fact 1 hour 40 of exceptional interview because you see, and this is where I really like your interviews, is that you, he can also say to himself yeah, they’re going to ask me questions, I’m going to get into trouble because me, me that’s what I like about you, is that at any moment it can go wrong. You’re going to ask the question that the person doesn’t want to, but you know what I mean. Yeah yeah, but I think the guys know that too. You see that actually, I’m not there for them, to put people in trouble, but to give myself some. They know me too. They know who we are, they know how we work. If there’s a question to ask, for example with Evan about Jean-Pierre de Vincent and Jean-Pierre, Monsieur Tasse de thé, we asked him the question, but it’s crazy, we asked him the question You see? And Gershom Gerson? The first time, he talks again about the fight against Partizan with Dantec, as it’s at our place. But that’s and that’s where I say to myself they know they’re going to address subjects and they go there anyway. They know I have a boy of the fight which was still bad publicity for him. You see, it didn’t do any good. His image, he never talked about it again, you see, And we didn’t even talk about it in advance. And he talks to us, he talks to us about it on the show, he talks to us about it on the show because I think that gay people, they trust us, they know that we’re not there to give them a banana. We’re just happy to have them. And then, and then, it benefits everyone. And then when you come out of an interview, I feel like people maybe know you more. Yeah, and I’m going there. I’m going to make the parallel because you see, there is, there is Tony Parker who had launched precisely with Stout and Scott, I don’t know what else, Ixquick, what could I, what do we call the media too much? And he did an interview where he interviewed fathers about Zidane. The interview, a lot of people. I’m not going to lie to you, I’m not going to throw a spanner in the works, but I didn’t find it relevant, I didn’t find it relevant but I forgot to tell you about it. But I’m not necessarily asking you to comment, I didn’t find it relevant and at that moment I said to myself when I say not relevant, it means that well I wasn’t taking things that I didn’t know the person. While you, when I listen to you, I know that at some point, there will be, there will be this little extra thing that I didn’t know about and that will come out on the network and that will be on repeat. How do we explain that we can have so much means and not be buzzed about? And you start from a little bit below and no longer need it? I don’t know. We have a history, we have, we have a history, we have in this profession in any case, we have a spider, we have, we have a role that is different, an approach certainly that is different. I imagine that when he goes through Zidane, he will have, he doesn’t have the same, the same approach that I can have, you see, or even the same look. You see, I think that tomorrow I think that I think that Zidane, you see, he considers himself at the same level, you see, they are two great athletes and everything. I have this thing of I’m going to leave space for the athletes. I’m going to listen to him, I’m going to go get him, I want me, I’m just going to guide you so that you push, that you tell me things. So there you go. And then, and then, we’re good at what we do. We also have to tell ourselves that. My idea. I think we’re good at what we do, and that there may be others who are great basketball players who are much better than me. I may be a better interviewer than him. Well, there you go. Well, I can confirm it to you, you’re much better than him as an interviewer. And as soon as I was interviewed, interview Zidane. But it would have been bad one day, it would have been one day. Because the housing project is not far from mine where I grew up. It’s just behind, in the northeastern districts of Marseille, Marseille, Marseille, Castellane, Calade. It’s not very far. Yeah, no, but it would have been great. But no, but it’s clear. And you? I like these stairs. I kind of like what you did, and I’d like to talk a little bit too because I saw that you put it on FaceTime food. You’re not even scared, you did, you did a variation of first in. What went through your head then? So do nothing. If you have to give some ideas. We’re bon vivants, we’re bon vivants. We love restaurants, we love good wine, we love going out. And it’s true that abandonnant is a food craze without much pretension. But it caught people’s attention, it makes them laugh. But we’re also working on a new project to really grow the Instagram account. But there, the real variations are FT Sport. Now, it’s our channel on YouTube which has more than 100,000 subscribers too, where we produce Formula One, football, rugby and cycling shows. So in fact, when we were at Webedia, we had so much equipment around us that we said to ourselves it’s too stupid to only do basketball, there were guys who wanted to do what we were doing, but on other sports, we said to ourselves go ahead, we’ll produce too, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll put ourselves in the shoes of producers and frankly it’s cool too, you see. But it wasn’t planned. But. But after a while, when the opportunities are there, you have to seize them. So today, we produce other sports programs. When you talk about production, that means you’re behind the controls, right? So that’s sorry, I’ll tell you. But it’s the producer, the producer, the producer, in fact it’s us, we’re there, it’s the team that produces. Actually, you’re in the First Time offices, it’s on the First Time channel. We produce, that’s it. In that side too, we put technicians who produce, but in a more, more, more, more direct way in the control room. Okay. And are you proud of all these variations or a certain one that you wouldn’t have wanted to do or not? I say no, I’m proud, I’m proud, I’m proud. Formula One is a great product that’s a hit. Football was, it was good, even if we want to relaunch something new. But it was good. Rugby is cool. And it gives other people a chance. You meet other people, it’s great, plus work. But no, I’m very proud of its variations there, there are things that work better than others, but in any case today, you see, when we project ourselves on what we want to become, we are only at the beginning of the story. But it’s been almost ten years of having to have. We say to ourselves ok, we have basketball, but we can also potentially have a real media one day. And if one day there is a guy without limits who says morning, there is already this in place, we can dream, we can dream of many things. You have to give me the definition of a real media because today, I consider myself a real media and that is what is very important. That’s what you often see when we reach levels, you see, it’s like in sport, you see, we reach levels, the guy behind in the team, uh, I don’t know, Apo, you, you, you go from Biarritz, you arrive in Pau but it’s not the end, you always want to go through. At that moment, I have the impression that you’re still telling me you’re hot at the beginning. That’s 195,000 subscribers on YouTube, I’m only just starting out. What is a real media outlet today? The word has been, it’s used a lot, even sometimes overused. I find it can sometimes sound pretentious to say media, but in any case today, I think that’s what we are despite everything, because we provide information regularly and in a fairly serious manner. So yes, we are a digital media, that’s it. But it’s true that I grew up in media mode, it’s France Télécom, it’s TF1. Yeah, no, but of course that’s changed. But when you grow up with that, when people tell you, “Ah, but you’re a media,” you have to be calm. But yes, ultimately, today we are, we are, and we want to become more and more so. So that means I understand. So you, you consider that today, with your 195,000 subscribers, the fact of proposing, proposing alternative content, even different from different media, is not enough. But in entrepreneurship there is no in-between, it’s either you move forward or you move backward. So I saw, I saw to choose in your opinion to choose. Today, we are represented by an agent named Manuel Diaz, so I invite you to take a look at his little entrepreneurial journey, and he’s a guy who is now one of them. That’s also why we’re in this new structure that represents us. Because he, in fact, sensed the potential in us. We know what you guys do, but we can look much higher. And in fact, it’s once again I’m no longer on a fixed-term contract at Bein Sports, saying to myself, okay, it’s cool, we produce a show during the week and it’s easy, I’m at home at 6 p.m. Uh, no, actually no. In fact, the adventure is fantastic, humanly, professionally. So it’s being surrounded, represented by a guy who tells you no, but we can go right up there, It’s cool. It makes you want to. Ah, but be careful, my motivation has never wavered, never. And I’m telling you, for me, it’s just the beginning. I’m 42 years old, realize it’s nothing, it’s nothing. I agree with you, it’s nothing, my friend, there’s still everything to do. largely the energy. And then you’re a TV presenter, you know. No, but we’re not going to lie to each other, you, I told you about Georges and I think that it has replaced a little bit, or at least there too, Ok, yes, for me it’s sure that if we do a poll on Instagram, you’re the Georges, you’re not the same image that Georges says Ah yeah, in the 4 years, it’s a hell of a compliment for the young people of the 2000s 2010s. You, I’m convinced, I’m convinced. I think you’ve already been told that. Sure, I’m not here to send you words, but I know you. But I don’t care about sending you to tell you that, but I have the impression that somewhere you. When you’re a TV presenter, people want to hear you and it’s a bit like Stéphane, you see, we were just talking about iPhone six iPhones, if we’re going to shout, you didn’t see that we’re reading hoping to be in the sun. Was that it? Yeah yeah, yeah, Rollo is very very very good by the way. And he even played in Switzerland. But hey, that’s a little aside. Uh. I like it when you speak. Last time you did this very internship on your site. Then you did exclusives and I saw him in his bed. His son came, came to tease him. But this authenticity, it’s magical. But do you really have these exclusives, you? He was just saying that he saw an exclusive with the paving stones. Do you really have these easy connections? It happens to us. It’s not what we want to do because every time we’ve released a few exclusives, we’ve been, we’ve often been questioned. We were the first to say in France that you were going to leave Spurs at the end of the season, the year he was going to sign, where we were insulted with all the names under the sun. But it doesn’t matter, that makes a lot of exclusions, we have a few, we can’t say everything. But you were saying like my friend says others no but that you can’t say you can’t say but you’re not going to. Now it’s over, you’re here in relation to the friend of a friend, of a friend, we have it, we have the information, we have the information because we are trusted people and we have a lot of information and we sort it out, we don’t say everything. Because if you come out with a scoop but behind the scenes no one talks to you anymore, what do you do? And I think that in this balance, we are very good and we are very fair. And the players, the coaches, the people around basketball who have this information know it. So, so, so there you go, we were the first, one of the first to know about the argument between Evan Fournier and Jean-Pierre Ciotat. So we knew it, we didn’t release it. Did we… You didn’t feel it because we told you not to release it or because you consulted internally and you said But I think everyone has this information. We say yeah, it’s done for you. But in fact I say to myself we are between Lille and Paris, but if we release this, we bring down, we put a false ego of space and that’s what we want. We don’t try. And in fact, if someone does exactly that, that’s what we want. We want to set the French team on fire right in the middle of the Olympic Games. Add to that, right in the middle of the Olympic Games. When we see what happens next. So no, in fact, that’s not what I want to be, being a sensationalist journalist. I’m here to talk about basketball. Afterwards, I have information, I have stuff, when it comes out, I respond to it. Yes, we knew. But having exclusives to create clickbait to speak vulgarly, that’s not us, that will never be us, that will never be us. But we have information, we have plenty of it, we know, we know the entire world of agents, but they also talk to us because they know that we’re not going to immediately put up a tweet afterward willingly. A grid in fact. And in the end, the calculation is not good because you lose everything. one but I. And then I also see how structured you are in the end. Today we see you and Thomas on screen. We also see Tiphaine but we see how much. What I really remember from our exchange is how much you are, it’s you, you’ve become staff, you’ve become a target. It’s really structured. And I see even when you finally speak, I am convinced that the trust of agents, the trust of players, the trust of a staff gives you more credibility, certainly, but I really have the impression that you are well advised. Are you well advised? Tell me if I’m wrong, but we are all Thomas. Thomas is a very intelligent guy. We often have similar visions, but even when we always manage to listen to each other, to talk to each other, in fact, we have never been, we have never taken it to heart. With Thomas, we also have a whole team behind us. We will quote them. Amen, Tom, Jérémy, Paul, Léo who each in their role, everyone also tells us these are opinions, things, so we are very attentive to the thing, it’s not it’s not, it’s not we are the kings and we do what we tell you, you see. So that’s interesting, this iPhone is less there because there was a lot of RMC also gives its opinions, so we are very much in the exchange and I think that’s also our strength to operate like that. And besides, speaking of Tom Thomas the rookie, is that right? Well yes, the routine. You know, I ran into him this summer at Okey 54 and so he said to me it’s me who follows you, but he also told me that you are president of the golf club. Not so much anymore, I’m still officially. I have the title, I don’t really go there anymore, I really have more time. Besides, I should make it official and spend a bit at the club to hand over. It’s time. Seriously, Tu. And how long were you president? Is that the peak? Five or six years? I’m not. But you’re still president, but Malakoff, Malakoff is the Malakoff basketball club. In fact, it was at the time when I, uh, I made the connection between Christophe Denis and Malakoff so that he could coach since it’s a club that’s close to my heart. It’s a club that helped me enormously when I arrived in Paris. So, I met Thomas there. It’s a club that allowed me, I tell you, to have an apartment for five years at an unbeatable price so I could stay in Paris while I did what I had to do. So Malakoff is a club that’s really, really close to my heart. And there you go, I wanted to give back a little bit of that opportunity. I wasn’t the one who asked for it. I was asked to do it. I did it to give back what it had given me. That’s it, that’s also basketball. That’s also giving back what it gave us, even if we’re not players. In fact. I believe that today it’s basketball that gave me what I am today. You see, me, basketball, yes, I would have liked to be a player, the French team and play for 1 €, we agree. But I didn’t have the qualities for it. But on the other hand, basketball gave me things that today in my life as a man, have helped me a lot. So. So in fact, it’s always a win when you play basketball, Frankly, you make the great transition for me for the end. For me It’s for this reason that I’m going to interview former athletes, amateur professionals, people who have played sports because I think we don’t realize what it brings us. You see, when you want to retrain, and I follow. I’m a witness to it. Today, I’m my own agent, I work in sports, but work ethic, perseverance, there are a lot of elements that I ultimately don’t have in class. I didn’t learn it in school, I learned it on a basketball court, facing off, playing with Mike Pietrus. We played with Flo. Patrice too. We played with that. There was Youssouf. We had a whole concept as an athlete that led us to have a mindset because you have a sports team of cheaters, as they say, who was Fabrice really? When you have Mickael Pietrus, Boris Diot, Flo Pietrus, fuck you. He was the right one. Afterwards, unfortunately, it cost me playing time. Yeah, yeah, that’s for sure. I was in Brest, the youngsters had playing time, you had to say it. Afterwards, if you don’t want to, it’s hell, but then we’ll see. But you’re right, you’re right about what you say. I went to school, my school, but not just life, it was basketball. I have a baccalaureate in science and technology to become a secretary, I never used it afterward. I did a semester at university in STAPS, I learned nothing. For me, that’s all I learned, it’s the encounters and that’s what group life taught me, life in a locker room, the good sides, the bad sides, but crazy, crazy. And the proof is, here we are ten years later, we separate ten in groove by playing together. 25 years ago, I played accounting, there were great crossovers when I worked. Yes, you. I did ten freelance jobs, you, maybe ten, no, even more. That gives you a selection together as much as on others. And I have the photo. No, but wait, I have the photo. I’ll put it there in the photo. She’s at home. I’ll take it out by Lolo Villa. Exactly. I’ll take out the photos, but there you go, we’ll see each other again. That’s also what sport is all about. Because every person I’ve met along the way, I’ve asked them to do the podcast, and they’ve accepted. And today, you see, I’m watching. Today, you’re adored. Today I heard you, you were credible in French basketball. One Instagram message and you said yes. And that pleases me, it touches me enormously. No, but it’s true, it touches me enormously because at a certain point, I think that sport, we don’t realize the strength it gives. But in relationships, all the people I met during my first years in training centers, they’re people, so I can’t keep in touch with everyone. But on the other hand, if Patrice Mandanda writes to me, the guy had won the Nike 40, it was, I remember with Tu rigoles, we did, we had parties together, we found ourselves in Biarritz having parties, we were in the selection together. You’re talking to me. It’s like we got hurt, like it was yesterday. Oh, thank you, thank you, that really means a lot to me. I have one last question for you, are you still giving? Imagine that I stopped playing three years ago. I’m still giving three years ago, but with difficulty because. Because you see, you catch on, your name is Jules Caille. Bastard, what juice! So there, I allow myself to make a little pass that I had. My poor. What a dunker my guy! During the warm-up, we were there, it was up to us to play like cadets, to send him a kind of plane, to burst snakes over a year. It’s funny because you see, my sons play basketball, I coach them you see, and they have more ideas of me in these cases, with these qualities. Girls, I’m telling you. Very good athlete, fast and very high. Thank you. Not very skillful, but video. I’ll exchange with them. Oh yes, we all change with time, I have changed but it’s true. It’s true that when I started I wasn’t very skillful. But very quickly, very very very quickly. Thank you very much! Thank you Patrice. The affectionate. Thank you very much Erwan. Honestly, he listened to this podcast on com1sport. It offers you some amazing content with Erwan Abautret. The Marseillais living in Paris is here. Thank you, thank you, Patrice.