*Update: Embiid commits to Team USA* (France gives Embiid til Oct 10th to commit)

[Sedale Threatt]

It does not matter because there is no chance that he will be healthy enough to participate.

Lol, and then there’s this

[YogurtProducer]

Kind of pathetic. Play for your own **** country man.

Cameroon might not have a ton of talent, but with Siakam / Embiid / Koloko / Mbah a Moute they have 4 quality guys right there.

What joy do you get out of joining a stacked countries team? Pathetic.

I mean both Pascal and Koloko have never played for their national team, Luc is most likely retired and they haven't even qualified for the Olympics yet. Considering that the last qualification tournament is occurring early 2024, there is a high likelihood that they won't even get into the Olympics.

So a toss-up between France and USA is an easy choice. France has both Gobert and Wemby at his position and USA has a gaping hole. His primary competition in Bam and JJJ are just a bit too small for the national game and AD most likely will sit out.

Plus he moved to the USA when he was 16.... he's 29 now. That is nearly half his life and entire adulthood in the US. He just as American as he is Cameroonian currently.

So Canada did not make the olympics for like 20 years, would you have been okay if they all went and played for another country?

[_jin]

He had every right to choose whichever country he wanted to represent out of those 3. As a dual french-american citizen, I was hoping he'd pick Cameroon, not because I dislike him (I welcome him on Team USA and would have done the same had he picked France) but on those squads he'd just be another player, he could have helped to grow the game tremendously in Cameroon and Africa and become a legend there. I was hoping South Sudan performance at the WC and the recent development of basketball in north-eastern and western Africa would have made him consider his birth country. But there's no reason to be upset about his choice, it's his life and his career.

[KGtabake]

Time for the US to recruit Jokic so that Embiid can come off the bench.

[Raps in 4]

This guy is such a loser. This is the international version of KD going to the Warriors.

[phanman]

Kind of pathetic. Play for your own **** country man.

Cameroon might not have a ton of talent, but with Siakam / Embiid / Koloko / Mbah a Moute they have 4 quality guys right there.

What joy do you get out of joining a stacked countries team? Pathetic.

I mean both Pascal and Koloko have never played for their national team, Luc is most likely retired and they haven't even qualified for the Olympics yet. Considering that the last qualification tournament is occurring early 2024, there is a high likelihood that they won't even get into the Olympics.

So a toss-up between France and USA is an easy choice. France has both Gobert and Wemby at his position and USA has a gaping hole. His primary competition in Bam and JJJ are just a bit too small for the national game and AD most likely will sit out.

Plus he moved to the USA when he was 16.... he's 29 now. That is nearly half his life and entire adulthood in the US. He just as American as he is Cameroonian currently.

So Canada did not make the olympics for like 20 years, would you have been okay if they all went and played for another country?

I'd be over the moon if we naturalized Pascal as a Canadian for our national team. He's the missing piece and arguably the perfect fit to our core. He speaks French and has been on our and has been representing since 2016.

I'd like to think that the learning curve from 16-29 represents more of you are than one you experience from 1-16 for Embiid.

[Zeno]

There is nothing wrong with him playing for the US. The whole Lebron calling up everyone to assemble and save the basketball nation's honor narrative was way more annoying. Someone becomes a citizen after living in a country for over a decade. There is no reason why this should be controversial. That being said, US going out in 2nd round(quarter finals?) if he suits up.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

I mean Giannis was grew up in Greece, discovered basketball there, and was playing at a professional level before being drafted. He was on the U20 team in 2012.

Not that it matters, but
1. Giannis was drafted 18 so basically came over the same age as embiid. He was on a super low tier in Greece that would be probably be equivalent to AAU over here.
2. I think it was 2013 right after he was drafted to the bucks? He wasn't even a Greek citizen until 2013, which is kind of ironic in this debate. Like the biggest difference between the 2 is that Giannis committed early to Greece. Embiid just never did that for Cameroon or France.

Like Giannis recently just said he tells people he is from Milwaukee, WI, not Greece. There's really no material difference between Embiid and Giannis except Giannis committed early. If he went back in time and said he wanted to play Team USA when he was drafted would people have thought that was right?

[druggas]

The Olympics were better when it was amateurs.

[azcatz11]

There is nothing wrong with him playing for the US. The whole Lebron calling up everyone to assemble and save the basketball nation's honor narrative was way more annoying. Someone becomes a citizen after living in a country for over a decade. There is no reason why this should be controversial. That being said, US going out in 2nd round(quarter finals?) if he suits up.

It's not controversial - it's just a weak decision not to play for your home country. We're allowed to pan him for this. He's a front runner anyways and I've lost all respect for him

[liquidswords]

lol the hate is flowing in this thread....Embiid starts and AD backs up. Bam have a nice vacation

I don't think it's hate so to speak. More so is that gold medal going to mean anything for a player who isn't playing for his home country?

I mentioned this earlier - maybe there are extenuating circumstances we're not aware of with Cameroon. But I can speak for myself, I'd want to play for my home country and not be a mercenary.

On the surface - this appears to be a lame attempt at a medal grab to boost his legacy

Ur probably right here but i see this similarly to the true stars in the league sitting out the world cup and then going "super team assemble" before the olympics.

[MoCapone]

The biggest issue from me isn’t him choosing to represent USA per se but more the competitive aspect of his choice. Embiid on that team USA team ain’t gotta do much to win gold, whereas playing for France or Cameroon he woulda had to really get in his bag and play at an elite level. So he kinda took the easy way to a gold. As a pure basketball fan how could you have not wanted to see embiid go against bron and co. It would’ve been must see TV

[spanishninja]

Time for the US to recruit Jokic so that Embiid can come off the bench.

haha, expedite that citizenship form lol

[durden_tyler]

LOL France blew it, couldn’t they have offered a city or something?

[Message Boar]

That's a shame, I was hoping he'd play for Cameroon. But then again they'd have to win an African qualification tournament without him to even make it to the Olympics. Not 100% sure on that, but that was my impression when I looked it up a while ago.

Joel can do whatever he wants, though. I guess it's a good career move. It might be his only shot at winning anything, and it's always a good networking opportunity.

[WiggOuts]

USA basketball is soft AF for doing this. Scared of competition lol

[Cubbies2120]

The choices are:
1. Easy gold medal where you have to put in zero effort yourself [USA]
2. A difficult road with France, where you'd be the face of the team but also take backlash when you shrink in the biggest stage [France]
3. Playing for your country, with no expectations of winning, but going out and competing to make your country proud [Cameroon]

I can see why he took choice #1 tbh. He's tired of getting (rightly) scrutinized for shrinking in the biggest moments.

Maybe that's just me, but I would go nr.3

EASILY go number 3.

If Shai Gilgeous Alexander decided he was gonna play for the USA I would want him to lose his Canadian citizenship. That is some unclassy **** right there.

Oh, 100% agree - I'd opt for #3 as well, but I can see why a guy who has been criticized repeatedly for shrinking in big moments doesn't want to go route #2, and wants to finally win something without having the pressure on him.

[durden_tyler]

At the end of the day, money talks.

[durden_tyler]

USA basketball is soft AF for doing this. Scared of competition lol

Can’t blame them, they wanted to send Team A+ after sending Team C the last time. LOL

[Roger Murdock]

America is Embiid's home country…

ITT: people getting mad just to get mad