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France did what it could to convince Joel Embiid to represent the country in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, and a former player best known for being at the receiving end of one of the most vicious dunks in basketball history suggested the country should ban the big man in retaliation.
If you’re familiar with Joel Embiid, you likely know he was born in Cameroon and spent the first 16 years of his life in the country before heading to the United States in the hopes he’d be able to pursue a career in basketball.
He was more than able to achieve that goal, as he played at Kansas before being drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the third overall pick in the draft in 2014 before cementing himself as one of the most dominant players in the NBA.
Embiid declined the opportunity to pursue an international career with Cameroon’s squad, and in 2022, he ended up with two new options on the table when he earned his American citizenship a couple of months after France also presented him with a passport after the powers that be took advantage of a clause concerning cases where “naturalization is of exceptional interest.”
The “exceptional interest” in that particular scenario was the notion that Embiid could be persuaded to join the French national team ahead of the 2024 Olympics to create an absolutely terrifying frontcourt that would have also been comprised of Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama.
However, Embiid opted to spurn Les Blues in favor of a different red, white, and blue, as he (along with Kawhi Leonard) will be making his Team USA debut after making the 12-man roster that was officially revealed earlier this month.
According to Eurohoops, that development didn’t go over very well with Frederic Weis, the 7’2″ center who secured a silver medal at the 2000 Olympics but will forever be remembered for being on the receiving end of the dunk where Vince Carter literally leaped over him to slam the ball home.
Weis eventually pivoted to a career as a broadcaster and currently hosts a show on RMC where he made his thoughts on Embiid very clear, saying, “I hate him for the things that he did. I think he doesn’t have any respect for France.”
While he seemed to be joking around when he floated the idea, he also said France should retaliate for the snub by not allowing Embiid into the country when he arrives for the Olympics, stating:
“I would take away from him the French nationality and I would ban him from entering France. You will not play in the Olympics.
You will come to the airport with Team USA and we will say: You don’t have the right to enter the territory, go to your home. You are Cameronian, you are American, you are not French, go away.”
Embiid’s connection to France is fairly tenuous. He speaks French and has family that resides in the country, but opting to play for the United States makes much more sense from a circumstantial and competitive standpoint.
With that said, it’s easy to understand why fans of Les Blues are salty about missing out on securing his talents.