France’s Nicolas Batum (on the ball) blocks Dennis Schröder (No. 17) in the Olympic semi-final in Paris.
Photo: Imago/Moritz Müller
Nicolas Batum is pissed off. In the last group game of the Olympic basketball tournament, his French were back with 27:48 against Germany at halftime. In the cabin it breaks out of the 36-year-old: »We want the gold medal? On the ass! We don’t know what we want at all. We are taken apart, ”rages the 2.03 meter tall wing player in the finest French, while his teammates look into the void. “The laughter over us and we don’t mind.”
The outbreak of her captain in the game against Dennis Schröder and Co. is a key moment for French basketball players. Even though the group game ends with 85:71 to the world champions from Germany, the fighting spirit shows in the second half, which will ultimately carry the French against the United States until the final. It is one of the most intense scenes in the “Court of Gold” mini series, which has been available at Netflix since mid -February.
Four teams, four camera teams
In six episodes, director Jake Rogal tells the history of the men’s Olympic basketball tournament last summer. For this, the American sought four national teams before the games started, which were accompanied by four camera teams through the entire competition. In addition to the superstars from the USA, the choice fell on host France, Serbia with Nikola Jokić, the best basketball player of the present, and the Canadians who are peppered with most players from the North American professional league NBA after the USA.
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The result is a kind of sports documentary, as it rarely exists. The series are now increasing through teams or individual athletes, which have been accompanied by a special tournament or a special career moment. But more and more people have creative say more and more. Exclusive insights are only available against the promise to polish up the marketable image of the protagonists. The really interesting moments happen without a camera or disappear in the cut room forever.
“Court of Gold” is also not a merciless exposing of the basketball world. But Rogal and his team managed to get astonishingly deep and honest insights into the inner life of the four accompanied teams. After the International Olympic Committee had given the turning permit, the film crews first had to work out the trust of players and trainers. “We came to a point where we knew when we had to make ourselves felt and when we hold back,” the director explained to the sports news portal “The Athletic” at the start of the series. “You are only able to capture these very special moments if you are hardly noticeable.”
A trick provides authenticity
In addition to Batum’s anger or the semi-final thriller between the USA and Serbia, from the point of view of both teams, it is above all the many interviews that provide a different feeling of authenticity. For this, the director used a trick that was already used in the Emmy-winning Netflix series “The Last Dance” about the last title season by Michael Jordans Chicago Bulls, in which Rogal was also involved as a producer.
Even during the interviews, the documentary filmmaker shows coaches and players parts of his recordings to which those involved can react directly. So shortly after his outbreak against Germany, you can see Nicolas Batum sitting in the French team quarters and smiling about themselves: “I was just angry that they were so clearly superior to us. I wanted us to show a reaction. «Or US-Forward Kevin Durant, who breaks out in tears at the idea of how many different people from all over the world came to Paris for the Olympic basketball tournament.
With Svetislav Pešić on the treadmill
There is also plenty of space between the great feelings of sport for lighter moments. For example, when Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, whose mother herself was a runner at the Olympics, can hardly keep still as a spectator at the 100-meter final before excitement. A walking highlight is Serbia’s coaching legend Svetislav Pešić, who can never properly put his distrust of the camera team. Only when the filmmakers accompany the 75-year-old at his daily training program while walking, dumbbell lifting and squats, the ex-coach of Alba Berlin, Bavaria Munich and the German national team will briefly open up.
The German basketball players can be seen in “Court of Gold” primarily as an opponent on the floor. Once there is an insight into the DBB selection cabin, which made a small scandal directly. After the Frenchmen succeeded in the group in the semi -finals in the group phase, Moritz Wagner is seen completely resolved in front of his locker. After the publication of the series, the 27-year-old, who, just like his four-year brother Franz, deserves his money in the NBA that he did not know that at that moment a camera team was nearby, and that he was also not asked whether the excerpt could be published. “It was a blatant, disgusting feeling when I saw it again,” said the Berlin -born in his podcast and pushed after: “I never want to see it again and never hear again!”
Of course, the protection of personal rights also applies to professional athletes. And if the film team actually had no permission to be in the German cabin, it should be informed. At the same time, Wagner’s criticism also underlines what makes “Court of Gold” so special: the unfiltered view in the heart of the world’s best basketball teams in the world.
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