Through Victor Massias
Published on 23 May 21 at 10:08
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No respite for this basketball court in the Paris region. All day long, balls hit and bounce. That day, in 2005, the leather is pressed between the two big paws of a big guy of 17 years old. He is watched out of the corner of his eye, no one has seen him in this position before. He is more used to playing with his feet. Not too bad, by the way. He tries a shoot. It is missed.
Apart from his size, everyone agrees that he is not made for this sport. “You are tall but you suck”, some players shout at him. “Put down your ball, you’re never going to succeed”, assert the others. This kind of sentence, it marks. As he says himself: “These are words that fit in one ear but do not come out through the other. It stays in your skull. “
Air ball under the snow
“There are times I would come home crying. In the neighborhoods, you have to make your place, ”he puts into perspective today. “But that’s what forges. This is what makes that one day, you decide that no one gets into your head and it creates a mind for you. “So Dominique Gentil, our neo-basketball player without a future, hangs on, whether it is windy or raining:” I was working every day. I took my ball and went out onto the pitch. Once it was snowing and I went anyway. He progresses quickly and becomes a good player. With shortcomings due to his delay, of course, but he is managing.
A hard name to bear
At the end of a year, he tries selections for the SIG of Strasbourg, club of Pro A (First division). “You will not be the most talented, but we see in your game that you do not let go, that you are starving and that is what will ensure that you will continue to progress when the others stagnate”, assures him Olivier Weissler, the hopes coach of the club who takes him under his wing. “He launched my career”, slips Dominique Gentil, incidentally little brother of Pascal Gentil, double bronze medalist in taekwondo at the Olympic Games (2000 and 2004).
“When I was younger, he was clearly my idol, my mentor, I acted a lot by imitation. Everything he did I wanted to do it again, ”says the basketball player who dreams of also bringing back an Olympic medal rather than dunking in the NBA. “I tried taekwondo, but the weight of the name was horrible because he really was excellence in his sport. It’s as if your name is Zidane and you play soccer… ”
“If you have the opportunity to do it, do it”
In parallel with his trajectory in traditional basketball interferes the 3 vs 3. A friend invites him to replace an injured player in the final tournament of the French championship with Team Paris. Dominique Gentil catches the eye of an assistant to the coach of the France team in the stands, who offers him to come to an internship. “I arrive by the back door, it’s already super cool that I’m there, I get a few France t-shirts, socks, I’m happy,” he recalls.
But it doesn’t stop there. Just before the European Cup, two players get injured. Nice is called. On the floor, he satisfies his coaches. From there, they won’t do without him. “I was in the right place at the right time,” he smiles. “Sometimes in life you have a chance to do something and if you don’t do it then there might not be a second, so if you have the chance to do something. do, do it. “
The Zidane of three-way basketball
A few years and cans of sweat later, he’s the Zidane of 3 vs 3 basketball. He landed at Saint Thomas Basket Le Havre (NM1) in 2020, with this status of “three-way basketball ambassador”, naturally granted by his four French championship titles with four different teams (unprecedented record), his bronze medal at the 2017 World Cup, that of silver in the 2019 European Championship and a very honest career in 5 vs 5.
The icing on the cake, he is also captain of the France team. “It’s a source of pride. I am a very patriotic person, I have always been very proud to be French, I have always claimed it, ”he explains, with a solemn air. “The first time I wore the France jersey and sang La Marseillaise, I had tears in my eyes. It still gives me chills today. For any athlete, to represent his country… There, we no longer represent a club, it’s not the yellows against the greens, it’s all of France that is with you, it’s extraordinary. “
Three-way basketball, “it’s totally different”
Thanks to his hard work and three-way basketball, Dominique Gentil managed to fill the technical deficit he felt at the start: “In 3 vs 3, you have to know how to do everything. You have to be able to play from a distance, up close, back to the basket, dribble, pass… ”Better still, he can now establish his versatility as his main asset.
Since 2014, Dominique Gentil has alternated between the two disciplines: 5 vs 5 in season, 3 vs 3, in summer. A week’s holiday at Christmas, a week in summer and basta. “Since it’s my passion, I’m not complaining, I chose to do this. One day, I won’t be able to anymore, so I’ll be happy to have worked so much, ”he explains. “I prefer to do it now while I can physically. “
And then, impossible to make a choice between the two. “It’s totally different, like indoor football and grass football,” he continues. “The 3 vs 3, it immediately highlights your qualities as your faults. It means that we cannot hide in a corner of the field. You are always in action. If you are good offensively, your offensive talent will be able to express itself more. On the 5 vs 5, it is the collective that takes precedence. “
American style
Dominique Gentil is not one of those dazzled by the light. He is constantly looking for her, like the American stars. You have to see him in action, shout, chamber, interact with spectators or his opponents. “As soon as I enter the field, it’s a show. When I score, when I do a good deed, I turn around, I heat up. You play for yourself, to please yourself, but also for the public, so that people look at you and say to themselves “he is elegant, he is beautiful to see playing”. The day I play super clean is that I work, I no longer live my passion. “
The basketball player of Martinican origin loves to be whistled: “When everyone wants me to suck, I say” ah yeah ?! “I have never been anxious or stressed before a game. It’s as if your passion is to eat and someone puts a dish in front of you. You are excited, you are hungry, you want to eat, and well me, it’s the same, during a match, I’m going to live my passion, it’s only positive. “
“I have always considered myself an artist”
In fact, he sees his sport as an art. He tagged, he draws, plays music and is passionate about everything related to creation. “It’s like a musician who composes. When you are in the field, you also compose ”, illustrates this mastodon of 1m97 for 113 kg. “There are a thousand ways to get the ball between your legs. You, if you manage to do your own way, your movement is a bit of art. I have always considered myself an artist. “
Here he is on guitar, in 2012, accompanying a singer and a rapper:
A qualification to seek
Despite everything, Dominique Gentil remains a great competitor nonetheless: “I don’t care if I put 20 points per game. What I want is to win. The goal of the day: to follow in the footsteps of his big brother Pascal and fly to the 2021 Olympic Games. To do this, he will have to finish among the first three (out of twenty teams) during the Olympic qualifying tournament which will take place from May 26-30, 2021, in Graz, Austria.
The captain of the France team expects maximum difficulty. “This sound of matches… Psychologically, you have to be strong. There are several meetings a day, we start in the morning, we rest for about two hours, we replay. You have to manage the effort and the adrenaline. These are complicated days. It goes up, it goes down, it goes up, it goes down… At the end, you’re completely washed out, ”he breathes before remembering this little final, for 2nd place, at the 2017 World Cup. “After the match, I felt faint. So much pressure, I collapsed in the dressing rooms, the doctors came. “
Gold and nothing else
If he validates his ticket for Tokyo, it will not target just any metal. He wants the gold and nothing else. Ever since he saw his big brother win his first Olympic medal, he has wanted to do the same. Or even better. Luckily, three-way basketball becomes an Olympic discipline for the first time in 2021, “so the little dream I had as a kid resurfaced. Now, I condition everything in relation to that. I really want to give myself the means, so I won’t have any regrets. If I take the gold, it will fill something that I have always had deep inside me by saying to myself: “damn I got there, I have my gold medal around my neck”. But, knowing me, two weeks later I will still be hungry. “
Qualifying or not, medal or not, gold or not, Dominique Gentil knows it, deep down: his biggest fight, he has already won. And hands down. Now, when he returns to the neighborhood where he grew up, in the Paris region, to visit his parents, he meets those who made fun of him on the basketball court. “These people respect me, they come to talk to me, while I know they are the same. I made these people respect me, just by getting it right. “
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