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Petr Cornelie, Real Madrid: 'I've been in the gym my whole life'

Petr Cornelie, Real Madrid: 'I've been in the gym my whole life'

Interviews

25 October 20224 Mins read

Petr Cornelie, Real Madrid: 'I've been in the gym my whole life'

If you look across the rosters of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague teams, you will find many players who are the sons of former professionals. But how many players come from a family in which everybody played basketball?

Real Madrid forward Petr Cornelie is one of them; both of his parents, Martial and Pavla, played professionally and so did his sister Jodie.

Young Petr tried other sports but ended up playing basketball partly because of his environment. When everyone in the family is playing the game and you spend most of the time in a gym, it is difficult not to give it a try.

"I've been in the gym my whole life!" he explained. "You can't do better for a young guy who wants to learn how to play basketball."

"My father is still playing, you know? He's like 52 years old now and he's still playing."

There were times in his youth where he picked up other sports, such as handball or badminton, but then he would still spend his weekends at basketball courts for his sister Jodie's games and would end up shooting around.

"And I was like, 'Okay, I want to start [playing] basketball again. So that's was when I was maybe eight, something like that, I started again, and then never stopped," he said.

Coming from a basketball family, Petr has felt the passion for the game and the support of his parents and sister throughout his career.

"My father is still playing, you know? He's like 52 years old now and he's still playing. He can't run too well now, his knees are done, but he's still playing because he loves the game," Cornelie said. "He loves to see us perform at that level, obviously. And then my mom is also very, very proud. I know she loves European basketball even better than the NBA. So she loves to see me in Real Madrid, for sure."

They would usually follow Petr to major competitions, but there was one big exception. Martial and Pavla were not allowed to travel to Tokyo for the Olympic Games because the games were closed to spectators on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. That prevented the Cornelies from seeing Petr win a silver medal with the French national team.

"They try to be at the games when they can. And yeah, I know it was painful, especially for my dad, that the Olympics were in Japan and Japan was closed at that time so he couldn't go because he was really, really proud and he wanted to go so bad," he said.

One may think that family meals at the Cornelies would be about basketball non-stop, but Petr said that is not the case.

"It's a big subject every time, for sure. But yeah, we try to talk about so many things. I think my parents are really like big on culture and big on being interested in so many things. So they try to say, 'Okay, basketball is one thing, but you also need to have an open mind to everything and to try to be a better person by knowing so much stuff'," he explained.

"I couldn't be the basketball player that I am and that I want to become if they weren't there."

At the end of the day, having a basketball family has definitely helped Cornelie get where he is right now, playing for one of the best teams in Europe and trying to help Real win its 11th Turkish Airlines EuroLeague crown. And if that happens, Petr knows they will be in the stands this time because his success will be shared by his entire family.

"It's all because of them. I'm really grateful about that. I think they... my parents are really different, but they teach me some different things in their own. And yes, the message they sent me was just great," Cornelie said. "So it definitely made an impact for me. And I think I couldn't be the basketball player that I am and that I want to become if they weren't there."