The France men’s national basketball team plays Belgium on Thursday in EuroBasket 2025. Here is the preview:
Game Info
When: Thursday, Aug. 28 at 11 a.m. ET
Where: Spodek Arena, Katowice, Poland
How to watch: Stream on Courtside 1891
What to watch for
France is the fourth ranked team in the world in men’s basketball and the defending Olympic silver medalists from the 2024 Olympic games. Now, Les Bleus will begin their EuroBasket journey with a match against their northern neighbors.
We have written a lot about Belgium over the years
on Bullets Forever. But it has almost entirely been about their top tier women’s national basketball team, led by now-New York Liberty forward Emma Meesseman (and a former Washington Mystics star) and coached by former Mystics General Manager and Head Coach Mike Thibault.
In this post, we are instead focusing on the men’s team from Belgium, known as the Lions, not the Cats. Belgium is the No. 40 ranked team in the world and is the strongest team from the Benelux, which includes the Netherlands (the Olympic gold medalists for 3X3) and Luxembourg. But without any NBA players, the Lions will be underdogs, not like a Cats vs. Bleues battle on the women’s side.
The Wizards also have two key players in Bilal Coulibaly and Alex Sarr on Les Bleus. Expect both to have significant roles for France. It would be nice to see Wizards players win an international medal before the 2025-26 NBA season gets underway!
