NBA star Joel Embiid ‘picks the US over France and his native Cameroon for the 2024 Paris Olympics’: Philadelphia 76ers center was granted French and American citizenship in 2022
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Joel Embiid reportedly plans to represent the United States at the 2024 Paris Olympics, spurning not only the host nation, France, but his native Cameroon as well.
The Philadelphia 76ers seven-foot center became a French citizen in July of 2022 and followed that by being granted US citizenship in September of last year.
Embiid’s decision was first reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
The news is certainly welcome for Team USA, which finished a dismal fourth at the 2023 FIBA World Cup with Walker Kessler and Jaren Jackson Jr. at center.
Now 29, Embiid has spent his adult life in the United States, first as a dominant collegiate center for the Kansas Jayhawks and then as the franchise cornerstone of the 76ers.
Joel Embiid reportedly plans to represent the United States at the 2024 Paris Olympics
‘I’ve been here for a long time,’ Embiid told The Associated Press about becoming a US citizen in the fall of 2022.
‘My son is American. I felt like, I’m living here and it’s a blessing to be an American. So I said, why not?’
The U.S. will try for a fifth consecutive gold medal at Paris next summer. Embiid is expected to address his decision later Thursday at 76ers’ training camp in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Embiid joins a long list of top NBA players who are hoping or planning to play for the US next summer, including Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Bam Adebayo, Devin Booker and many more.
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