Bloodied Wemby leads France to Olympic final

PARIS — Bolstered by an electric home crowd, Victor Wembanyama and France are headed to the gold medal game for the second consecutive Olympics after beating Germany 73-69 in the first of two semifinals Thursday.

France was led by a 17-point effort from Guerschon Yabusele while Isaia Cordinier chipped in 16, none more important than two free throws with seven seconds to play to seal the win

The silver medalists in the Tokyo Games, France now faces the United States for gold after the the Americans survived upset-minded Serbia, 95-91 in Thursday’s other semifinal.

Blood stained the neckline of Wembanyama’s jersey after the game, courtesy of a fresh cut on the left side of his neck. He did plenty of sweating during the game and was holding back tears when it was all over.

Blood, sweat and tears. How fitting.

“In our national anthem, we talk about blood,” Wembanyama said. “We’re willing to spill blood on the court. So, it’s no big deal. If it allows us to win gold, I’m offering. Take all of it.”

Wembanyama — already the NBA Rookie of the Year and a No. 1 draft pick — now has a new accolade — an Olympic medalist. The only question is whether it’ll be gold or silver, something that will be determined Saturday night. The French lost to the U.S. in the final at the Tokyo Games three years ago.

Wembanyama was just a kid then, a 17-year-old who was in the early days of becoming known as an NBA prospect. He’s a bigger kid now, a 7-foot-4 20-year-old who is already considered a national hero — not to mention one in San Antonio, where he’s been tasked with leading the Spurs back to prominence.

“Of course, it’s part of a dream come true,” Wembanyama said. “We can be part of a goal that we set for ourselves months back. We can write history, even more. A once-in-a-lifetime dream.”

His final numbers Thursday, with Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and team president RC Buford looking on: 11 points, seven rebounds on just 4 of 17 shooting. The numbers didn’t look great, but his impact went well beyond what was on the stat sheet.

Midway through the third quarter, Germany guard Dennis Schroder got by Wembanyama on his way to the rim. All Wembanyama had to do was basically turn around at that point; he stuck out his right arm and stopped Schroder’s shot from getting even the tiniest bit airborne.

In the fourth, he got Schroder again — this time, blocking a 3-point try. That led to a 3-pointer by France’s Frank Ntilikina at the other end, the hosts took a 10-point lead and Wembanyama pumped his fist in celebration. When Germany was chipping away late, Wembanyama made an unreal bounce pass through the lane with the shot clock running down to set up Yabusele for a pair of free throws that pushed the lead back to 69-60 with 4:00 left.

Wembanyama’s free throw with 10.9 seconds remaining made it 71-68, Germany never got another shot to tie or take the lead and that was that. France celebrated wildly afterward, for good reason.

“The fans, they made it hard for me not to cry,” Wembanyama said. “I thank them.”

The French will be only the third team to play for Olympic men’s basketball gold on home soil. The U.S. did it at Los Angeles in 1984 and at Atlanta in 1996, winning both times.

The U.S. (with the golds in 1984 and 1996) and the Soviet Union at Moscow in 1980 (bronze) were, until now, the only teams to win a medal of any color in men’s basketball at home; France will join that list Saturday by claiming either gold or silver.

In recent times, most Olympic hosts didn’t even come close to the medals: Japan finished 11th at Tokyo three years ago, Brazil was ninth at Rio de Janeiro in 2016, Britain was ninth at London in 2012, China was eighth at Beijing in 2008, Spain was ninth at Barcelona in 1992 and South Korea was ninth at Seoul in 1988. (The exceptions in those years were the U.S. win in 1996, Australia finishing fourth at Sydney in 2000 and Greece placing fifth at Athens in 2004.)

Of course, those teams didn’t have Wembanyama, who now has a chance to win gold.

“This jersey brings to us a different energy that we can’t find nowhere else,” he said. “It’s something that we all feel as patriots. We love our jersey. We love our country.”

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.