Lil Rah, yelling at Quai 54 founder Hammadoun Sidibé.
Sean Bell All-Stars’ Coach Raheem “Lil’ Rah” Wiggins made a decision that ruined the Quai 54 (Paris, France) 6th Edition–He quit the Finals at the half!
Sean Bell All Stars, the ‘07 Quai 54 Champs, returned quite easily to this year’s Finals. Last summer nobody was strong enough to stop them, but this time La Fusion, composed of 10 French Pro players including Amara Sy and Sacha Giffa, succeeded to win with a disappointing scenario.
During the whole tournament, the staff and crowd were all waiting for the La Fusion and Sean Bell match-up, and it happened on Sunday. The game started with crazy intensity, real physical and we directly felt electricity in the air. La Fusion was dominating the battle, disturbing Sean Bell’s offensive schemes, defending hard on the low post, hitting a couple of 3s and really not being afraid of New York’s multi-champs.
Some trash talking started, and some hard knocks between Bj “The Beast” McFarland and Sambou Traoré, a real man competition where the U.S “no blood no foul” rule was applied. But it went too far, lots of fouls weren’t called and it was getting on Lil’ Rah’s nerves. So he got two techs yelling at the refs. The score at half was 32-22 favor la Fusion. Under crowd boos, Rah put on a crazy acting role and decided to quit the game without asking his players. La Fusion then took back the Quai 54 title on that strange disappointing end!
Apparently, Lil’ Rah was so upset that he invited La Fusion for a rematch in NYC in 10 days, so be on the look out for the revenge!
Last year’s MVP Brian “20″Woodward posting up ‘08 MVP Steed Tchicamboud.
Amara Sy, no joke.
Bj Mc Farland, trying to disturb Amara Sy.
Kevin “Golden Child” Kemp, jumping over 6′7 Florent Pietrus.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
great reporting kevin! seems like every year the quai 54 finals has drama, even dating back to when i was there in ‘05 and the terror squad decided to call the game before the end too. what i suggest perhaps is for the tournament to hire better refs. i think that’s the one thing keeping the event from really flourishing, adn i hate reading that the 3,000+ fans out there, and i saw that with my own eyes, were dissappointed yet once again. but there are concerns that lil’rah and terror squad about protecting their players. yes, they play mega-hard, and are no where near being soft, however all these dudes feed their families by playing ball and none of them want to get hurt in a summer league game. that’s my take on it . . .
props to all of y’all out there for keeping the torch going though, almamy, hammaddoun, thibault, the whole crew. word up.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Carlito Roc TCK Krew says:
Just saw another Lil Rah coached game stopped in the last 4 seconds of the game, over at the TriState Classic.
His team came back from like 30 down in a real intense battle against Reid, Artest and Co.
Emotions were flaring like a mutha…
Saw Mr. Couch over there on the front lines recording the events.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:46 am
T.D says:
Bounce is the definate authority on the summer hoop scene in NYC. Much appreciated. Much love to the bounce crew for keeping us junkies up to date.
July 10th, 2008 at 2:31 am
Seldom Seen says:
I have only seen the Sean Bell (R.I.P!) All-Stars play once so I’m no authority on there history but from what I witnessed my first impressions of Li’l Rah are he OD’S way to much. I mean this cat was walking all over and on the court getting at and dissing the referee’s with no shame! I don’t know dude or what motivates him to act up like this but to me it was not a good look at all. I seriously doubt the French squad would take him up on an offer to play here in 10 days after his last disappointing performance. I agree the refs may be an issue and coaches must protect there players but I also believe people must take an honest look in the mirror and realize that the game is meant to be played from start to finish period!
July 10th, 2008 at 3:31 am
Kevin Couliau says:
The Quai 54 is a super physical tournament, it’s the way people play basketball in Paris. It’s obvious that the refs didn’t call enough, but it was the same situation last year, and Sean Bell All Stars won the champ.
They should bring U.S Referees like they did once, but it seems that Raheem is often acting like that, getting dozen of technical fouls.
It’s a pity they left at the half, just because all the french people waited one year to see the Quai 54, it’s the only real streetball tournament we have, it’s not like in NYC where you have so much different leagues,champs, with a good level.
July 10th, 2008 at 4:33 am
Antonio Gil says:
Great article Kevin! I’d like to watch Quai54 one day, so maybe I’ll try next summer.
P.S. Nice uniforms!!!
July 10th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Elliot Rosado says:
Coach Ra is a very good coach with a high basketball IQ. But his fear of losing gets the best of him. He also tends to get more attention during a game than his players which is not a good look. I thought he could be a Mousey type coach but that may be a difficult task considering Mousey would never pull his team off the court.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Kyle says:
Nice write up. Quai 54 looks tough, I’d like to catch a game there some day. If La Fusion does come to NYC, please believe I’m there. Those unis are sick.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Jon says:
I cosign on the Hot Unis! Well written piece. It’s always a shame when the game is in the hands of anyone other than the players.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
the unis are by brand jordan. i was buggin’ cuz in the bj the beast photo it’s revealed that the shorts have pockets, which was outlawed in NYC almost 40 years ago cuz a player broke his finger in a game when it got caught on his man’s pockets (no, he wasn’t picking his pocket, this is real). i remember just last summer playing a tournament game and ref disqualifying my teammate cuz he didn’t have regular game shorts. kind of bugged, right?
July 11th, 2008 at 4:26 am
Antonio Gil says:
Bob: Are you serious? Did a ref disqualifying a team because their shors had pockets!? Wow!
P.S. BJ’s photo is like ‘come on man, are you going to shoot?’
July 11th, 2008 at 5:05 am
Caro says:
Actually, just before the free throw, he put his hands in the pockets and waved them like a butterfly or a chicken!
Pretty good job Kev!
July 11th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
DA BEAST says:
Wat’s up, just to clear up a couple of things on the article written, we actually ended the game before half time. YES my man rah is a character, but that is just the way he is, and that is why we play for him, it gets crazy sometimes but as a coach he has your back. I don’t condone quitting before the game is over but there were many things that went into play. We had french refs that didn’t like our coach and how he acts on the sideline, the previous game he received 2 techs and they tried to kick him out, but we wouldn’t leave if he had to leave, so the ref had an attitude with our coach, and the same refs did our championship game. They normally rotate refs after each game but these refs continued to ref our last 2 games. The physical play was not really the problem, it was a wrestling match on our end, and we had to play text book defense on theirs. We received 3 flagarant fouls and 2 techs which gave them the lead. And after all that we continued to play until we got a steal and we were on the break and after they stopped the play and called foul, that is when rah went ballistic, We also had french supporters that said the game wasn’t being called the right way, and that’s all rah needed to hear. We do challenge them to come to NY, and i hope they come because even if the refs are bad at the end of the day you will play more basketball then UFC.
July 11th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
DA BEAST says:
Oh by the way i put my hands in my pocket because they kept giving the guy extra freethrows for me having my hands in the air, and just before then when i was on the freethrow line he was doing the same thing but they said it was ok. It would have been good to conitnune the game, they did put that team together specifially for us, they put the 05, 06 champs together to play us so would have been a good game, just needed refs from outside of france to do the game.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
BJ-
good lookin’ for clearing things up from a player’s perspective, definitely let us know if the game happens here in nyc. no doubt.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Kevin Couliau says:
Yo BJ,
Thanks a lot for the explanation.
To my mind the Quai 54 didn’t found the right refs balance, I mean in NYC the refs are accustomed to whistle on streetball games. During the Quai 54 it was Professionnal refs, and cos’ of their lack of streetball experience they’re not able to judge correctly all the things to call or not and to give the tempo.
Moreover in NYC people have that natural love for basketball, it doesn’t matter if you’re french, japanese,german … in France,especially in Paris, players see american teams as a challenge, and feel we have something to prove, we can’t let them win !
So you know the result, extra-physical games, full of fouls, dangerous defense…
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed your stay in Paris, thanks for your availability on the interviews & hit me up if you need some pictures.
peace
kev.
July 11th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
COACH "D" says:
ITS A SHAME YOU DIDN’T GET TO DEFEND YOUR TITLE.
IT WILL NEVER BE EASY PLAYING OVER THERE. ESPECIALLY
PLAYING THE “HOUSE” TEAM. EVERY COACH HAS BEEN IN THAT
SITUATION. YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT.
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THE NAME ON THE UNIFORM, AND REP
IT AT ALL COST NO MATTER WHAT THE OBSTACLES ARE.
YOU MADE THIS TOO EASY FOR THEM!
July 12th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Jesse Washington says:
An incredible report all the way from France! Good looking out Kev!! And thanks a million BJ for letting us know the real. It sounds like Rah may have actually been right.
July 12th, 2008 at 2:43 am
Seldom Seen says:
I guess with all that said it’s ok for Rah to get frustrated, carry on, act a fool, implode and ultimately hurt his team. Is that how you win over the ref’s who you already know have issues with you? Does’nt make a whole lot of sense to me. Whatever happened to keeping your composure. Not the first time and won’t be the last.
Just one humble person’s opinion.
July 12th, 2008 at 11:29 am
mr. k1x says:
speaking from a corporate point of view, the quitting of games (especially the chip) is ridiculous. that event is hot but if they keep having those crazy finishes they will lose sponsorship and the crowd/buzz as well in the next few years
July 12th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
i think bj really gave a perfect behind the scenes view of what happened, but i just thought about how mad i’ve gotten when i travel to BK of the BX for a game and it’s a forfeit. imagine flying 7-8 hours in a plane to the other side of the atlantic to have a game cancelled? the fact that bj is supporting rah’s decision is revealing how insane that must’ve been, cuz otherwise i’m thinking any of the players would’ve been pretty pissed to not have finished that . . .
August 18th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
slimmy says:
Hey y’all i know i’m late hihi, but i just wanted to give my opinion on that final.
First i have to say that the refs were kind of weird during the game, everybody knows that Quai54 is real physical but it has to be both ways. I was very disapointed when i noticed that refs were blowin’ whistle only for La fusion.
Then you have the speaker who put gaz instead of put of the flame (he was speakin’ french so i don’t think Sean bell players or coach did understand), i told my friends that the game was going wrong ’cause even a blind dude would have seen that BJ got his arm caught by a french player but there was no foul called. French people only wanted to see the victory of La fusion but few of them noticed that refs weren’t correct.
I don’t know who would have won the game with good refs but if we wanted to bring the title back we had to do it the right way. (sorry for my english lol)
October 7th, 2008 at 11:44 am
The truth says:
I’m french. I was there and i can argue that the refs didn’t call the game the right way. The game wasn’t equalled : that was a trap to you.
Something more, it’s disappointing you didn’t understand french ’cause the speaker was gazing the US, exciting the crowd with anti-US provocation.
I thought that the truth ‘d to be made.
ps: sorry for my bad english.
More : this team Prozikfi is composed of 4 players of the current French national team (Tchicamboud, Giffa, ali traoré, Gradit)with amara Sy (from Mali)…all to beat a US squad.