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France managed to walk away with a silver medal in men’s basketball at the most recent Summer Olympics, and it was apparently hoping to debut a wildly imposing trio in Paris before Joel Embiid ruined its plans.
The United States has usually been the team to beat since basketball debuted at the Olympics all the way back in 1936, and while France was able to win its first medal in the sport in 1948, it had to wait more than 50 years before earning a second with its second-place finish in Sydney.
The country was able to add a third silver medal to its trophy case in Tokyo with a team that boasted notable names including Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier, and Nicolas Batum, who were able to hold their own against the international competition but ultimately fell to the United States by a score of 87-82 in the championship game.
It was a promising result for a national team that had high hopes as it set its sights on the 2024 Summer Olympics on its home turf in Paris. There was little doubt Victor Wembanyama would be making his debut on that particular stage, and it seemed like Joel Embiid (who was born in Cameroon but earned French citizenship in 2022) was genuinely interested in lending his talents to the squad.
Unfortunately, those dreams were dashed when the 76ers’ superstar announced he’d be playing for Team USA last year.
That was obviously a big blow for France, but based on an article from The Athletic chronicling what went down behind the scenes, it was also a somewhat unfortunate development for fans who won’t get to see the team execute its plan to start Embiid, Gobert, and Wembanyama together in the backcourt.
That trio would have presented an absolute nightmare for any team tasked with attempting to shut down three seven-footers on offense while trying to score against them (especially Gobert and Wemby) on the other side of the court.
It does seem like France is still in pretty good shape, but if they don’t walk away with the gold, they’ll definitely spend a long time wondering what could have been.