Per Lou Attard
Published on
updated 13 July 22 at 11:13 am
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You will find it at ” playground (basketball court) of theImpressionist Island on Kitty at the end of the day. basketball legend and sports journalism, George Eddy is a Catovian at heart.
Chatou, family place
His family heritage is widely established in Yvelines : his great-grandfather, André Clément Meynot, was mayor of Croissy-sur-Seine in the early 1930s; his grandparents have always lived in Chatou and his mother was born there.
“I was born in Alabama, but every two years we went to visit my grandparents in Chato.”
Back in France in 1977, George Eddy lived for a year at Place Maurice-Berteaux and visited the best basketball players in the area. He signs the contract professional player in Vésinet (Yvelines) in 1987.
He explains: “I made progress with the local people. We would meet in the gymnasium for rallies and matches. That’s where my career started.” His place in the Vésinet team greatly contributed to the club’s promotion to the second division.
After his internship, George Eddy began a career in sports journalism, particularly as a reporter commentator of the match. He was the main presenter of Canal+ for a long time and continues to work with the channel today.
Land for everyone for a long time
George Eddy was also involved in the design sport objects from Chatou. With their friend, coach and basketball player, Guilhem Peaucelle, they created the association “Playground time” in May 2022.
“This association was born out of a desire to restore the land of Chatou. We offer a voluntary service where we give advice on the creation or renovation of outdoor grounds for town halls. We try to make the best value for money to have halls of official dimensions and unbreakable materials. We aim for grounds to last 50 years. Leave something behind, and a basketball court is more profitable than a statue.”
This initiative also extended to Le Pecq, which rehabilitated land on the banks of the Seine with Plexiglas.
George Eddy does not hide his admiration for the dynamism of the city of Chatou and the importance attached to sports infrastructure and youth.
“Chatou has three beautiful grounds: in the Parc de l’Europe, on the Landes promenade and on the island of the Impressionists. I consider the island the most beautiful in all of France.”
Youth in the spotlight
For him, it is a matter of honor to immortalize intergenerational exchange that happens on the ground. He organized for twenty years basketball camps in the city of Yvelin.
This former player puts transmission to new generations at the center of his pedagogy.
People come from all over to see him or play on the playground and take pictures with him.
This new wind of youth, he also sees in the rising stars of French professional basketball like Victor Wembanyam. 18-year-old player from Chesnay. The young child prodigy will be “very quickly the best player in France of the new generation”, he explains.
At two years old Olympic games and a few months since European championship [en septembre 2022], the tricolor team is ready. “With elements like Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier, French basketball is doing very well. They are ready enough to win the second title of the European champion [en septembre 2022] and shine at the Olympic Games. »
His favorite players
His ex, Michael Jordan. “It was a global phenomenon with which I have been present for more than 20 years.”
His current one, Stephen Curry. “He is the best shooter in the history of the world. I was a three-point specialist myself. He participated in the basketball revolution.”
Before we find him commentating on the next European Championship game, George Eddy continues to make daily trips to the Chatou pitch.
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