Embiid and Banchero: USA Basketball fishing in international waters for 2024 Olympics

The best player in the NBA has never been an international. Joel Embiid, last season’s MVP, was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in 1994 and obtained French citizenship in July 2022. Two months later, he received a U.S. passport. With offers from all three federations on the table, and an Olympic Games on the horizon, the Philadelphia 76ers star had initially taken firm steps to play for France at the Paris Games in 2024. Les Bleus were rubbing their hands together at the prospect of an inside pairing of Embiid and Victor Wembanyama at their home Olympics, but after the 2023 World Championship, where Team USA were beaten by eventual champions Germany in the semi-finals, LeBron James made himself available for the 2024 Games and began recruiting reinforcements to challenge for Olympic gold. In addition to stars like Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, ready for one last dance, the federation also secured the commitment of Embiid. The towering 2.13m center went from rehearsing La Marseillaise to brushing up on the Star-Spangled Banner.

“I’m really proud and excited about this decision. It was not easy. I am blessed to call Cameroon, France, and the USA home. After talking to my family, I knew it had to be Team USA,” Embiid said in October. “I want to play with my brothers in the league. I want to play for my fans because they’ve been incredible since the day I came here. But most of all, I want to honor my son who was born in the US. I want my boy to know I played my first Olympics for him,” said the center, who moved to North America when he was 16.

European centers rule in the NBA

The number three pick in the 2014 draft was called up by Cameroon for the 2017 AfroBasket tournament, but did not participate due to injury. It was after the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games that he himself knocked on France’s door. Embiid explained that he had a distant French relative and that, although he had never lived there, he dreamed of playing for Les Bleus. He even spoke to the team’s heavyweights, Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier and Nicolas Batum, and the national team’s sporting director, Boris Diaw, to offer his services. With the backing of the locker room, the federation pulled strings among the political class to accelerate a nationalization process that was given the green light in July last year, before the EuroBasket tournament. But once again a physical problem — this time an operation on his hand — prevented Embiid from making his debut for France, which trusted in his word that he would be available for the team at the 2023 World Cup or the 2024 Games. Until LeBron came along. Embiid’s decision to play for the USA is seen today as a mockery and a source of humiliation in France, where Wembanyama is the country’s new idol.

For the United States, incorporating Embiid brings guarantees in a position dominated by European players. The reigning NBA MVP, who finished last season with averages of 33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, is the top scorer so far this season with 31.9 points on average. Serbia’s Nikola Jokic is second behind Embiid with 27.4 points per game, followed by Turkey’s Alperen Sengun, Latvia’s Kristaps Porzingis, Montenegro’s Nikola Vucevic, Lithuania’s Jonas Valanciunas. France’s Wembanyama and Gobert are among the top 15. This is nothing strange in an increasingly international league that this season has once again broken its own record for non-US players with 125 international players in the NBA.

After two slaps in the face at the last two World Cups (a seventh-placed finish in 2019 and fourth in 2023, after losing to Lithuania, Germany, and Canada), the United States wants to go all-in at the Games. The experiment of this summer, when Kerr called up 12 rookies, is no longer valid. If LeBron plays in France, everyone else will be ready to go, including Embiid, ending Cameroon’s romantic dream and France’s initial plan.

As well as landing the NBA MVP, USA Basketball also hooked last season’s leading rookie a few months ago. Power forward Paolo Banchero made his debut with the U.S. senior national team at the World Cup after pulling out from representing Italy at the last minute. Born in Seattle and a descendant of Italian immigrants on his father’s side, 21-year-old Banchero received an Italian passport in 2020 and came close to playing for Italy at the Tokyo Games and was later included in the preliminary Azzurri roster for EuroBasket 2022. When he was selected as the first overall pick in that summer’s draft by the Orlando Magic, he posed at his presentation wrapped in the Italian flag. But on his way to the international altar he changed his mind and embraced the United States, the country his mother, Rhonda Smith, played for. The Italian federation considered it a betrayal. As in the case of Embiid, the hand was won by the most powerful player at the table. Where its inexhaustible pool of talent does not extend, Team USA buys some of its trump cards.

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