Rouissi voices his support for Les Bleus

Sports/Olympics / Basketball

 Rouissi voices his support for Les Bleus
(fiba.com)
Updated: 2006-09-04 11:10

SAITAMA (FIBA World Championship) - Since 1997, players have come and
gone on France's national team, but a constant has remained in the crowd
in the form of super fan Jamil Rouissi.

Rouissi has followed Les Bleus everywhere they have been in international
competitions since making his debut at the 1997 EuroBasket in Girona.

His trademark is to taunt France's opponents, especially when they are
shooting free throws.

For some reason his voice seems to resonate a lot more than anyone
else's, so much so that he can be heard throughout the entire arena and
can be pretty off-putting.

Most recently he could be heard during France's fifth place win over
Turkey, telling Bogdan Tanjevic's players "You're going to miss" every
time they went to the charity stripe and seemingly putting them off on a
few occasions.

And when he doesn't say something to the players, he usually makes some
sort of a yodelling noise to put them off when they are trying to
concentrate the most - with a degree of success.

His undying support has earned him the right to be known throughout
France's basketball federation but more importantly by the players
themselves, who simply call him by his first name and acknowledge him
every chance they get.

"Jamil has been a great supporter of the national team for years," France
swingman Mickael Pietrus recalls. "I can remember when I was just
starting out in the national team's under age side that he was already
there, supporting us at every single international competition.

"It's really great to know that he's going to be wherever we go and
trying to motivate us. I'm impressed at how he always manages to make his
way to where we are playing."

Ironically enough, Rouissi's profession - in light of what he does during
France's games - might come as a surprise considering how vociferous and
unconditional he is in his support of one team.

"I'm a public announcer for basketball teams in the Paris area," he said.
"The problem in doing that kind of work is that I have to remain
impartial at all times.

"I can never choose one team over another, especially since I have
friends on most of them. So the only way that I can express my emotions
and my real feelings is during France's games."

His most famous moment in Saitama may have been during France's
qualification against Germany.

Rouissi gave Dirk Nowitzky and Germany a hard time on Thursday, yelling
"kein Problem" and "keine Angst" every time they went to the foul line.

It didn't work with the German star - who went three for four from the
line - but it may have worked with his team-mate Steffen Hamann, who only
went four for seven from the charity stripe.

In a game that was won by the slimmest of margins, 78-77 for France,
those three missed foul shots count a lot.

"German is the language I learned at school. So I thought I would speak
to him in German," Rouissi said of his choice to try and get into
Nowitzki's head.

With France having won the fifth place, Rouissi will now head home, happy
to see that they have done so well in this tournament.

"It's great to see France finishing fifth, especially since we had to do
it without Tony Parker. I think coming right behind the four top teams is
where we are supposed to be," he said.

Les Bleus now hope to build on this performance and their third place
finish at last year's EuroBasket to go a step further at the 2007 FIBA
European Championship in Spain.

No doubt Rouissi will be there, pulling for them.

See you there Jamil.

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