France needs Joel Embiid for nationwide workforce in 2024 Olympics

HENDERSON, Nev. — Joel Embiid has two selections: the purple, white and blue of the U.S., or the blue, white and purple of France.

An Olympic medal would possibly hinge on his resolution.

France continues to be hopeful that Embiid — the reigning NBA scoring champion — will select to put on its colours for the 2024 Paris Olympics despite the fact that he not too long ago turned an American citizen, nationwide workforce coach Vincent Collet mentioned Thursday.

Embiid, the Philadelphia 76ers star, might select to play internationally for the U.S. or France, however not each. It was broadly presumed that he would play for France on the Paris Video games and probably even subsequent 12 months’s Basketball World Cup within the Philippines, till Embiid revealed final week that he now has American citizenship as nicely.

“Now he has each nationalities, and he has to decide on one basketball nationality, which isn’t the identical,” Collet advised The Related Press. “So, that may be a selection. No person can do something to vary it.”

Embiid advised AP final week that it is too early to consider a choice. By rule, he’ll finally should declare a option to FIBA, the game’s worldwide governing physique, if he decides that he needs to play on the Olympics or World Cup.

France is the reigning Olympic silver medalist and is planning to have a workforce that includes Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier, Nicolas Batum — and, fairly probably, prime NBA draft prospect Victor Wembanyama — on the Paris Video games. France’s plan is to basically take what might be its Olympic roster to the World Cup subsequent 12 months.

With out Embiid, that French core has been extraordinarily formidable. On prime of the 2021 silver in Tokyo, France gained bronze on the 2019 World Cup and silver once more at this 12 months’s European championships.

With Embiid, that group would determine to be even higher. Collet mentioned Boris Diaw, the overall supervisor of the French nationwide workforce, has been involved with Embiid to debate choices.

“I do know he met a few of our gamers to debate,” Collet mentioned. “I believe he ought to play with us. However we’ll see. We’ll respect his resolution no matter it’s.”

Embiid was born in Cameroon and has held French citizenship. He has a Brazilian girlfriend – their son is American – went to highschool in Florida and performed faculty basketball at Kansas.

The five-time NBA All-Star and four-time All-NBA choice has spent his complete professional profession with Philadelphia, averaging 26.0 factors in his first six seasons and a career-best 30.6 factors on his strategy to the scoring crown final season.