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Team captain Sleva has seen it all with Paris Basketball

Team captain Sleva has seen it all with Paris Basketball

Player Spotlight

24 October 20224 Mins read

Team captain Sleva has seen it all with Paris Basketball

Playing a basketball game on the hallowed grounds of tennis venue Roland Garros; having a world-famous rapper as a teammate; and the aspirations to be one of the best clubs in Europe. Those are just some of the highlights of Paris Basketball’s brief journey as a young club. And Dustin Sleva has been part of it all.

Sleva is captaining the 7DAYS EuroCup debutant from the French capital in this his fifth season with the club, which is also the club’s fifth season in existence.

"It's definitely exciting to see how the club grew through the five years that I have been here. My first game we might have had a hundred people in the stands and now we’re hoping to sell out an arena for 10,000 people,” said Sleva, referring to a new arena for 10,000 spectators that should open next year and is planned to be used in the 2024 Olympics. “It’s really something to take pride in.”

Paris Basketball is playing in France’s top league for just the second season. It made the jump from the second division in 2021 following its start in that league in 2018. The club has major aspirations of making noise on the European stage. It hired former NBA president of basketball operations David Kahn as president, has a new arena on the horizon and this season secured an invitation to the EuroCup.

"It's definitely exciting to see how the club grew through the five years that I have been here."

"To be a five-year-old club and get a EuroCup bid like this is exciting,” said Sleva, who signed with Paris out of college in the United States and has been there since.

Being in a metropolis such as Paris, club management has had to work hard to increase the team’s popularity among the city’s multi-faceted entertainment landscape - often mixing basketball with other areas of culture to help build a fanbase from scratch.

“You got so many people tugging at the attention in Paris. So to build something that people want to see is remarkable to do in a city like Paris,” Sleva said.

The marketing staff has come up with numerous ways to draw notice to the team, using fashion and a cool brand image on social media as well as a series of unusual events. Famous American rapper Sheck Wes, for example, played with the club in 2020-21 while it was in the second division. And on October 16, Paris hosted EuroLeague side AS Monaco for a French league game at the famed tennis venue Roland Gallos and 10,424 spectators saw Paris lose 95-91 at the home of the French Open.

“It was an amazing experience in front of a great crowd. To play in a historical stadium was an experience of itself. To play in the first-ever basketball game at Roland Garros is a memory that will be remembered forever by myself and my teammates,” Sleva said of the game played on the Philippe Chatrier court.

Paris’ home game against Monaco last season was also historic as the France League attendance record was broken with 8,117 fans coming out to Accor Arena for the contest.

"A lot of people are connecting with the brand that they're building and it continues to grow. That's a major role. That stuff matters because you're going to have higher budgets, you're going to have more money flowing in. You're going to have more visibility and that stuff is important because it makes the game more important and more intriguing to the younger generation,” Sleva said.

All of the work and effort to promote and push the club nearly went for naught last season as Paris was fighting against relegation in its first campaign in the top flight. The club had lost six of its last seven games and needed a win over third-placed Metropolitans 92 in the season finale to stave off relegation. Paris knocked off the local rival 81-65 on the road to secure another season in the top flight.

“Those last three months were probably the most stressful of my life, just trying to help the team in any way I can. I'm happy we got through it, happy about the pride we showed as a team,” Sleva remembered.

Everything turned out okay and now Sleva and Paris are making more history in the EuroCup - with higher goals and aspirations for the future, certainly with more special events as well.