Basketball-Wembanyama to French students: I hear you

France's basketball star Victor Wembanyama voiced ​his support on Thursday for ​French teenagers protesting conditions in ‌the country's ​schools. The Interior Ministry said 71,500 people took part in Thursday's demonstrations, including 24,500 in the main Paris ‌march centred on Place de la Bastille.

"These are systemic inequalities – problems so deep-rooted that, in fact, I'm glad that high-school students and young people in general are speaking ‌up," Wembanyama told a press conference on Thursday night. "I hear them, and ‌I support them, and I hope the people all over there will do the same."

The San Antonio Spurs player had previously replied "I would love to" when a fan asked him in an ⁠Instagram ​post to join the ⁠protest with the French teenagers. "I have a lot of interest. I meant it," Wembanyama added at ⁠the press conference. "I was in that position not so long ago."

"I've had the chance ​to escape this system, to escape these problems. But it's chance, it's luck. ⁠So I want to show my support." "It's not something that's completely unfamiliar to me. I went ⁠to ​high school in Nanterre, which was already a stronghold of 'blocages' back then," he said, referring to student-led school blockades.

Concerns about state schools have helped fuel ⁠some of France's most significant protests in decades. They began last month at high ⁠schools in ⁠Paris' poor northern suburbs, where anger over teacher absences and shabby facilities quickly evolved into a nationwide movement against inequality, weak ‌public spending ‌and falling standards.