Joel Embiid’s War With The French Nears Its Conclusion

Joel Embiid is a man of many passports, and thus many basketball suitors. Years out from the Paris Olympics, he was mulling his options. He was born in Cameroon, and while has never suited up for them in any capacity, he has said that that would be his first choice. "If they qualify, I'm playing for my home country because that's my dream," he told the New York Times. An Embiidless Cameroon team wound up losing in the semifinals of the Olympic qualifying tournament in July, months after he'd already made his decision.

Embiid speaks fluent French, and despite never living there, he got his French passport in July 2022, thanks to a law that allows the country to extend citizenship to "a foreigner [...] whose naturalization is of exceptional interest." French basketball president Jean-Pierre Siutat and French team general manager Boris Diaw told The Athletic that Embiid inquired about playing for France, so they went out of their way to help secure his citizenship with that understanding. A spokesperson for Embiid told The Athletic that Embiid never requested citizenship and the basketball officials pursued it on their own. French news outlet RMC claimed to have found a 2021 letter Embiid wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron volunteering his services for the national team.

A few months after getting his French citizenship, in September 2022, Embiid got citizenship in the U.S., where he has lived and played basketball since he was 16 years old. Any of these three teams would have been eager to add an MVP to the mix, and it was on him to determine where, at age 30, he'd finally make his international basketball debut. Much to consider.

My key criterion for any life decisions is "Will this disappoint Boris Diaw," but apparently the same is not true of Embiid, who went ahead and picked the U.S. "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," he wrote in his announcement.

Embiid also elaborated on the politics of that decision in his interview with the Times:

I kind of felt rushed in that decision because I wanted to take as much time as possible. It didn't help that France put an ultimatum on when the decision had to be made. I saw it on Twitter, and I was like, 'Whoa, where did it come from?' From the conversations that I had with the US, it was just, 'Take as much time as you need, there's no rush. We'd love to have you but it's ok if you make another decision.' When you have someone else putting pressure on you, it may seem like, 'Oh, you have to make a decision.'

[...]

I had the opportunity to talk with the French President [Emmanuel Macron] about what was going on. I told him - one thing that was kind of bothering me a lot was the relationship between France and Cameroon, and African countries in general.

Even right now, there are a lot of things going on there, there's a lot of pushback of basically kicking out the French because there have been so many years of oppression. That was my mindset because I knew it would be hard. With my family being in Cameroon, I don't want to put them through any of that stuff. I want them to be safe, and the relationship between France and Cameroon or Africa in general is just not good.

So there is a straight line to be drawn from France's grotesque imperial history and Joel Embiid lingering on court in the Bercy Arena after Team USA's thrilling comeback victory over Serbia in the Olympic semifinal to hit the "suck it" gesture over and over and over again. Embiid caught heat from all corners. Former French national team player Frederic Weis, who likely still has some complicated feelings about Team USA, had rough words for Embiid on his radio show: “I consider this boy a great player as much as he is a dirty guy. I hate him for the things that he did. I think he doesn’t have any respect for France and also for all the people who are asking for a French passport and don’t get it. And under the pretext that he is a great athlete, he got it. I find it scandalous, I find it embarrassing."

Embiid has been booed strenuously by the local fans throughout the Games, often with his encouragement. "I've always loved it. At the end of the day, I think a lot of people think it's hate. I see it as love and respect. If I wasn't an OK basketball player, I would not receive that type of treatment," he said last week.

"I see myself as being blessed and that's why I interact with them, why I interact with that type of crowd, that type of stuff. I'm blessed to be here. I've seen worse. I've played in worse environments. Both Gardens," he said, referring to the Knicks' and Celtics' crowds. At the Olympics has adeptly played into his role as heel, piquing the crowd before hucking a logo three in the waning seconds of a blowout of Puerto Rico in group play.

In Team USA's narrow win over Serbia on Thursday, Embiid had his best performance of the tournament, with 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Standout moments include a baseline-dunk-into-trademark-weird-fall sequence, fine rim protection, and a late one-man 7-0 run that cut Serbia's lead to one possession. Afterwards, he was the last player to leave the court, sharing his innermost emotions with the fans.

Sometimes you must, with a heavy heart, hand it to him. Embiid's tedious commitment to Reddit-grade trolling, which is years past its expiration date in an NBA setting, is broadly fun in this international context, as he plays in a country that colonized his people in the past and now feels entitled to his talents. It's only right that his Olympics conclude with a direct confrontation with France in Saturday's gold medal game. A big individual performance in a win would probably rank among the most satisfying accomplishments in his career, building the confidence that may well buoy him into the Eastern Conference Finals someday.

"Frankly, I don't understand why I've gotten a lot of criticism from the crowd," Embiid said today, though he surely does. "They're going to boo me. I'm going to go back at them and tell them to 'suck it.' And so it's going to be fun."