EXCLUSIVE: Nicolas Batum Not Prepared to Say 'Au Revoir' Yet
As Nicolas Batum enters his 16th NBA season, the veteran forward took time to talk about his journey, if this is the final ride, and more.
Nicolas Batum can often be found sitting at his locker before games, watching various videos on his phone as the audio plays through earbuds while he swivels back and forth in his chair.
That’s not a wholly unique experience when walking into a locker room, though.
Players try their best to decompress before games. Some will be on their phones; others, like Russell Westbrook, will have headphones on as they intently watch the large wall-mounted television, which is situated between two whiteboards that feature an overabundance of game-specific notes scrawled on them, as it runs through an endless loop of plays highlighting the opposition that evening.
Some players run through scenarios and play out a game inside their heads, attempting to forecast the future. But for Batum, the past is where you can find the Frenchman living. Always one to regale you with a marvelous story, Batum is thankful to have made it this far. Not just in the league, but in life.
“A little orange ball allowed me to start from a country town in Normandy and end up living in Hollywood,” Nicolas Batum told Russo Writes in an exclusive interview during training camp. “Just one ball. Because of one ball. Came from a little country town in Normandy, France. Ended up in Hollywood.”
Batum is entering his 16th season in the NBA. It’s been a highly successful career for a player who was plucked with the No. 25 overall selection by the Portland Trail Blazers way back in the 2008 NBA Draft.
It’s a journey that Batum is well aware of, and one he doesn’t take for granted.
“When I started my pro career in 2006, I played two years as a pro in France,” Batum said. “I was a pro before I got to the NBA. I didn’t have that much [sic] goals. At that time, to get drafted was huge. Just to put your name in the draft was something crazy.”
Batum’s professional career started in 2006 for Le Mans, a team from France’s Pro A league. Two years later, he was suiting up in the NBA as a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed 19-year-old who had his first career game come in Los Angeles against Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and the Los Angeles Lakers. A week later, Batum got his first start. It was a role he wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the season.
“I was 19, but I started 77 games my rookie year,” Batum recalls. “I was 19 years old. We ended up the fifth seed in the West, or something like that.” (Note: Batum officially started 76 games during his rookie season as Portland finished fourth in the West thanks to a 54-28 record.)
Batum had a simple goal for his NBA career early on. While some players strive for immense accolades or massive paydays, Batum had a much more grounded plan: longevity. Hang around and see where it takes you.
“So, when I did it, I get to the NBA, I gotta do at least 10 years. That was my goal. Try to do at least 10 years in, and you see what happens. At least try to go to a second contract.”
The native of Lisieux, France has made it well beyond 10 years, and he got more than just a second contract. Batum has signed four separate multi-year deals during his career.
As he gears up for his 16th season, Batum knows time is ticking on his career, but he’s more than able to appreciate the journey that’s still transpiring.
“I had some ups and downs, got a tough stretch my last year in Charlotte, but, you know, I think when you’re like a 15-plus-year guy – I don’t say, I’m not saying I’ve had a Hall of Fame career, but I think I’ve had a pretty decent career. Pretty much had a role since day one,” Batum noted.
“I pretty much had a role on every team I’ve been a part of, and I didn’t have the greatest career. I know I didn’t make All-NBA, stuff like that, but I think I had a pretty decent career for a young French guy who’s 19 years old who came in the league. So, you know, I could have done more, maybe, yes. People say you could have done more. Yes, I could have done more for sure. But I think all I’ve done over those 15 years, like NBA and international too, FIBA, tried to represent my country pretty well even if this summer wasn’t that good, but I always tried to do the job for my country as well. I think I did OK.”
As Batum enters his fourth season with the Clippers, he’s also well aware of the unique place he holds within the game itself. After all, when Batum entered the NBA, the lanky forward was seen more as a shooting guard or small forward rather than a power forward or even a center, which he has been used at times by the Clippers and coach Tyronn Lue.
During the era of basketball that Batum broke into, NBA teams generally featured two traditional bigs. You had a center, but you also had an imposing power forward.
“When I see myself, and I told that to a couple people when we played the Utah series in 2021 when I played the five. I’m like, in no way in hell I could have played even the four when I was a rookie. I was a three. Sometimes a two. I was a two-three. To be a power forward in this league [at that time], you need to be like 6’10”, 250 [pounds].”
Look no further than who Batum started alongside in Game 1 of Portland’s 2009 first-round series against Houston during his rookie season. The other four starters that night were Steve Blake, Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Joel Pryzbilla. Aldridge and Pryzbilla, at the time, were listed at 250 pounds and either at or near seven feet.
In the final game of that aforementioned Utah series in 2021, which the Clippers won to advance to the franchise’s first-ever Conference Finals, Batum started at center alongside Reggie Jackson, Paul George, Terance Mann, and Marcus Morris Sr.; a quartet with no one exceeding 6-foot-8 or 220 pounds.
A lot had changed in 13 years.
“LaMarcus Aldridge, or Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol, Dirk [Nowitzki]. That was the power forwards we had [when Batum broke into the league]. Carlos Boozer, Zach Randolph. Now it’s guys like me. I played the five for an entire playoff series, a second-round playoff series I played the five. The game has changed, yes; in a good way. You choose your camp. I think in a good way. The game evolved a different type of way, and it's gonna evolve again. Maybe in five years, it’s gonna go back to two bigs on a team. We never know. Who knows? Maybe we’re gonna have a 7’5” guy who’s gonna play point guard now. Who knows? It might happen this year.”
As you might have guessed, the “7’5” guy” that Batum casually mentions is none other than rookie phenom and No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama, someone that Batum is all-in on and raves about every chance he gets.
The game has evolved a ton during Batum’s time in the league. That doesn’t mean the game has passed him by, though. Batum still thinks and processes the game at a high level and has adapted his skill set to flourish in whatever situations that the Clippers put him in.
Last season was the third consecutive year that Batum has made at least 39 percent of his three-point attempts, the longest such streak of his career. In fact, Batum has made 39.8 percent of his three-pointers since arriving in Los Angeles. It’s a mark that puts him Top 20 in the NBA among players to hoist at least 800 attempts during that time.
However, despite how well he’s still playing both in the NBA and internationally, there are questions surrounding whether or not this will be the last hurrah for Batum and his storied career.
The 2024 Paris Olympics are around the corner, and it’s been hinted by some that it could be Batum’s swan song in the sport of basketball. But, not surprisingly, Batum has been coy about whether or not this will be his last bite at the apple, so to speak.
“I don’t. I really don’t, to tell you the truth. I really don’t,” Batum told Russo Writes when asked if he’s thought of this season as his final year. “I want to play, I want to be part of this team as much as I can, I want to play as much as I can. I’m a basketball player. So, I want to play basketball. That’s what I’m doing, that’s what I do. I want to play as much as I can, I want to help this team as much as I can to reach a certain goal, so that’s my mindset. I don’t think, and to be honest, I will not think about this. We’ll see what happens. But right now I’m really focused on what this team needs for me to do to be successful.”
Batum has seen it all in his career, and the stories he possesses could fill a best-selling novel that would have you thumbing through pages at a prodigious rate. But if you think he looks back at anything and thinks of a ‘What If?’ or a regret at all, you’d be pleasantly mistaken.
The world that Batum lives in is one of tranquility and acceptance. He understands the ebbs and flows of not just basketball but life. It’s part of what’s made him so valuable to the Clippers as a player who’s malleable enough to start or come off the bench when called upon.
“I can’t really have any regrets. I can’t,” Batum says with a wry smile.
“Hell, I’ve been in the NBA for pretty much [spanning] over three decades. I’ve played every tournament possible in FIBA. Did I have some ups and downs? Yes. Yes. But that was part of my journey. So, no regrets? Nah. I have no regrets.”
Batum, who turns 35 in December and is on the verge of playing in 1,000 career regular season games which would make him one of 17 players all-time born outside of the United States to reach that mark, is content with his time in basketball and everything that it has entailed.
“I know I’ve put the work in to do so,” Batum replies when asked if he’s going to be able to enjoy everything he gave to the game and that the game gave to him.
“I’ve traveled all around the world. I’ve had some crazy experiences, met crazy people. But, you know, in the end, I got a chance to be on the court a lot, besides my last year [in Charlotte]. I had a chance to really be part of my team and I had great teammates.”
As players wind their careers down, they tend to get more philosophical. Even the advice Batum would be willing to share with his younger self is profound.
“Just be careful of some people,” Batum asserts. “But, besides that, that was part of my journey, you know. Yes, I could have done some [things] different throughout my career for sure, yes. But just be careful of some people and the rest, I can’t change anything. That’s who I am. That’s who I’ve been.”
Spend five minutes with Nicolas Batum and you can tell he’s one of the most genuine players in the game. There’s zero bluster, zero bullshit. Batum will tell you how he sees it. All you have to do is ask. Even if he has his eyes glued to his phone and earbuds firmly entrenched.
The Frenchman understands the fragility of both basketball and life; a byproduct of a multitude of time spent in the league. He’s seen careers end before they’ve truly begun, and he’s seen incredible players dazzle right in front of his eyes. All because a little orange ball led him here.
“It’s not over yet,” Batum declares.
“But when you think about it, like, pretty much an 18-, 19-year career. I really started playing as a pro in ’05, ’06. So, more than half my life. It’s been crazy. It’s been great, though.”