Former Hornets player makes game-winning play to send France to Olympic gold medal game

Nic Batum can still play.

The former Charlotte Hornets forward showed that this past season with the Los Angeles Clippers and proved it again Thursday at the Olympics when his swat sent France to the gold medal game.

In the final seconds with France clinging to a 90-89 lead, Slovenia’s Klemen Prepelic thought he could beat Batum one-on-one to make the game-winning layup. But Batum, who’s 6-foot-8 and 230 pounds, played solid defense, keeping his arms in while Prepelic drove against him before reaching out and blocking the shot off the backboard, preserving the win.

“I had to make that play,” Batum said via The Associated Press. “I always dreamed of playing in this type of game,” Batum said. “And I had to make this play — this play — for my team. And I did it.”

Batum is the highest-paid player in Hornets history, signing a five-year, $120 million contract with the team in 2016. He didn’t play up to the team’s hopes and spent much of the 2019-20 season on the bench. He was often ridiculed by fans for being an albatross on the salary cap and the Hornets released him last offseason, stretching the final year of his $27 million salary across three seasons in order to sign Gordon Hayward.

But he found new success in Los Angeles, becoming a starter on a Clippers playoff team that reached the Western Conference Finals, averaging 8.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.2 assists last season.

France will play the United States to compete for the gold medal in men’s basketball Saturday.