On June 26, the day of the 2014 NBA Draft, Evan Fournier’s phone rang around 9 in the morning.
Fournier knew he had to answer.
It was his agent with stunning news: The Denver Nuggets were about to trade Fournier and a draft pick to the Orlando Magic for Arron Afflalo.
Shock washed over Fournier. But within a few hours, the surprise gave way to excitement.
Now, about four months later, Fournier is still happy about the change. His new coach, Jacque Vaughn, wants Fournier to handle the basketball more often than he did in Denver. Magic officials have told him they’ve scouted him for several years — going back to his days as a teenager in France — and regard him as a potential building block.
Fournier sounds rejuvenated even though, at 21 years old, he’s too young to require a career renaissance.
“I like it,” Fournier says. “You feel like they want you and that’s what you want as a player: to feel the pressure and the expectations. So it’s a great opportunity for me.”
The recently completed 2014 FIBA World Cup also boosted his confidence.
He helped France finish third by providing some scoring off the bench.
When he returned home to France after the bronze-medal game, basketball fans greeted the French players like they were celebrities.
“It was amazing!” he marvels. “Maybe not rock stars but close to that.”
You can understand Fournier’s sense of accomplishment.
Although countrymen Tony Parker and Boris Diaw have elevated basketball’s stature in France — “they opened the gate for us,” Fournier says — soccer easily overshadows basketball in popularity.
Fournier isn’t a soccer fan. When he was 8 years old, his parents attempted to sign him up for a soccer team in their Paris suburb. But the team had too many players and turned him away.
It may have been the luckiest thing that ever happened to him.
Fournier instead found a basketball team that had 10 spots remaining.
He immediately started dreaming of playing in the NBA.
The notion didn’t seem so outlandish to him. After all, his parents were stellar athletes. His dad, Francois, was a world-class judo martial artist who likely would’ve reached the Olympics if he hadn’t suffered a serious knee injury. Evan’s mom, Meriem, also was a professional martial artist.
Evan never embraced judo fully.
He didn’t advance beyond a yellow belt. In heavily accented English, he says, “Both of my parents can kick my butt right now. Both. I might be stronger than my mom, but strength without technique is nothing.”
Fournier’s basketball technique has impressed Vaughn after one week of Magic training camp. Fournier is a 6-foot-6 swingman who made 38 percent of his NBA three-point tries with Denver. Fournier can complement his long-range shooting by handling the basketball and initiating pick-and-rolls.
“Throughout the course of practices we’ve had, he’s had a mixture of everything, whether it was driving to the basket or also being able to spot up and make threes,” Vaughn says.
Vaughn and Fournier already have developed a rapport.
Vaughn attended France’s first three tournament games in Grenada, Spain, and Vaughn got to know Fournier a bit over dinner one night. Fournier was in a shooting slump at the time, and although Vaughn didn’t discuss X’s-and-O’s, the meeting cheered up Fournier.
Fournier also has hit it off with Magic center Nik Vucevic, who grew up in Belgium speaking French.
“He’s a good offensive player: smart with a good basketball IQ,” Vucevic says.
Now, Fournier thinks he can prove himself.
“I’m very excited because I know I’m going to handle the ball,” he says. “That’s what I like to do. In Denver, I was more of a stationary shooter, and that’s not what I do best. So I’m very happy.”
jbrobbins@tribune.com. Read his blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/magicblog and follow him on Twitter at @JoshuaBRobbins.
