Seven-time All-Star Sixers center Joel Embiid had a major decision to make ahead of his 2024 Olympics debut. The big man was born in Cameroon, holds French citizenship, and of course had the option to make a stacked Team USA even more loaded, writes Mike Sielski of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“Having a family here and living here half of my life… it made sense,” Embiid explained to reporters while Team USA prepared for the Olympics in Las Vegas.
Former Sixers head coach Brett Brown told Sielski that he sometimes talked to Embiid about the Olympics during his time in Philadelphia and thought the star center might want a chance to display his greatness by going up against the U.S. on an international stage.
“Then all of a sudden, you could feel like the U.S. having a chance to be an option,” Brown said. “Previously, I did not think that. I think what’s happened over time is that he well and truly sees himself as the United States being his home.”
There’s more from the Olympics:
- After beating Puerto Rico 90-79 for the first Olympic victory in his country’s history, South Sudan head coach Royal Ivey has been reveling in the moment, per Aris Barkas of Eurohoops. “This is a movie, my life is a movie right now,” Ivey said. “Being in the Olympics, and getting our first win, I’m proud of my players, one through 12, everybody contributed. This is so, so real, I couldn’t experience anything better than this. And I’m so thankful for the opportunity, I thank you all, and I thank my coaching staff, [South Sudan Basketball Federation president] Luol Deng, everyone.” Ivey is currently a Rockets assistant coach.
- South Sudan point guard Carlik Jones powered the club to its victory over Puerto Rico, notching 19 points, seven rebounds, and six assists, Barkas writes in another piece. During the team’s Olympics opening-night presentation, Sudan’s national anthem was played instead of South Sudan’s. South Sudan separated from Sudan as its own country in 2011. “I’ll say it added more fuel to the fire,” Jones said. “I feel like a lot of people don’t think we belong. A lot of people think that we don’t deserve to be here. But if you ask me, I think we have every right to be here. And, you know, we’re confident. We’re confident in the team. We’re confident in what we’ve done so far. And we just know we’ve got to keep going.”
- During Team USA’s 110-84 victory over Team Serbia in its first game of the Paris Olympics, head coach Steve Kerr did not play All-NBA Celtics power forward Jayson Tatum for a single second. Tatum confirmed to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe that he was not injured or sick (Twitter link). Speaking post-game, Kerr explained his decision to make Tatum a healthy scratch, per Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. “It’s really hard in a 40-minute game to play more than 10 guys,” Kerr said. All-NBA Suns power forward Kevin Durant, who had missed all five of Team USA’s exhibition games with a calf injury, returned to the lineup and seemingly absorbed Tatum’s minutes off the bench. He scored 23 points while shooting 8-of-9 from the floor across a scant 17 minutes. “With Kevin coming back, I just went to the combinations that I felt made the most sense,” Kerr added. “It seems crazy. I thought I was crazy when I looked at everything and determined these are the lineups I wanted to get to.”
I think any player should not be able to play for a country they did not live in from ages 0-16, but that’s just me.
I agree. The World Baseball Classic was a joke when it came to that.
The WBC is a shameless cash grab.
Why 0 to 16. China uses a lot of foreigners. Just make it you can’t change countries if you already played for 1 in the Olympics.
Embiid took the easy route. It’s different when you rep your country and show out and impress the world like say how South Sudan has for example.
Sorry but, if Embiid is an American citizen, he’s an American. America is the only country on the planet you can move to and become. You can’t move to France and become French. You can’t move to China and become Chinese, but anyone can move America and become American. America is where those who don’t want anything to do with the old world live. The rejection of the socialist Europe and authoritarian Asia countries, and fleeing the undeveloped Africa. Embiid is more American than he is a representative of any other country, because he chooses to be.
You can move to Canada and become Canadian, and a quick Google search indicates there are many more counties where you can do the same. What is this nonsense take?
It’s exactly what you called it, ‘nonsense’.
You can ask Shane Larkin (Turkey), Becky Hammon (Russia), Lorenzo Brown (Spain), Mike Tobey (Slovenia), Justin Brownlee (Philippines), A.J. Slaughter (Poland)…
Don’t need to, they played for teams that weren’t the favorites to win, they just did it to be able to play on the world stage. Jonquel Jones played dor Europe too and she’s not European. I’m aware.
Yes the US recruits players from other countries that are good all the time we know. I’m saying Embiid doesn’t want the satisfaction of leading his hometown team like South Sudan is impressing everyone. He chose the easiest route. He can do what he wants sure, doesn’t mean my point isn’t valid.
You can definitely move to France and become French! Last stats for France in 2021 had over 130 THOUSAND people naturalized.
Homer Davey, at it again. 0-16? Where in the world did you come up with that age range? 16 is a meaningless number. 18? Maybe? 21? Maybe? But 16? What, did you move at 16? Homer.
He cherry picked 16 because that’s the age Embiid was when he moved to the US.
Tatum zero minutes lol. Looked pretty good last Olympics playing next to KD did Tatum but as a Boston fan I happy with zero minutes per. Was pretty sure but, still wondering how far Kerr would bent the knee for Steph, Bron and KD. Moreover, will it cost his team?
If you look at the minutes played they were pretty evenly in the game. So who sits if you give Tatum minutes and Haliburton? No matter what somebody will be unhappy sitting on the bench.
They were up 19 going into the 4th quarter. There were at least 5 minutes to put Tatum and Haliburton in the game, though it shouldn’t have even come to that. Bogus.
Props to Giannis. He has his work cut out but is repping to the fullest.