(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Team USA basketball started off group play at the 2024 Paris Olympics with a rout of Serbia, and suddenly, the concerns that it may fall short of the gold medal started to dissipate just a bit.
Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers is Team USA’s starting center, but he continued his underwhelming play on the world stage by mustering just four points and two rebounds in 11 minutes.
NBA insider Jake Fischer was asked by Vincent Goodwill what the top story should be for Team USA basketball, and he said it is Embiid and the fact that he had the opportunity to play for Team France instead, per Ball Don’t Lie.
“There’s one story to me that takes the cake, of all the Paris storylines,” Fischer said.
There’s only one story @JakeLFischer would pursue if he was in Paris
Hint: It’s about the starting center for Team USA pic.twitter.com/kstH17vXJ5
— Ball Don’t Lie (@Balldontlie) July 30, 2024
Embiid received French citizenship two years ago, and just a couple of months later became a citizen of the United States.
As Fischer pointed out, Embiid has been heckled in Paris because of his decision to suit up for the United States instead of the host country of these Olympics.
A native of Cameroon, he spent most of his childhood there before coming to the United States when he was 16 years old.
Embiid won NBA MVP for the 2022-23 season and claimed the scoring title in both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaigns, and had it not been for an injury this past season, he may have won both honors again.
The knock against him, other than the fact that he has long been injury-prone, is that his NBA playoff numbers are significantly lower than his regular-season numbers.
Now, this could be a similar case as he seems to be falling short on a big stage again.
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