- Embiid, who was born in Cameroon, has no ties to France and was raised in the United States.
- The Sixers star was selected to the US basketball Olympic roster just a few days ago.
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Former New York Knicks draft pick Frederic Weis criticized Joel Embiid for snubbing France to play for Team USA this summer, jokingly suggesting the NBA star should be excluded from the team entirely. the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Weis, the 2000 Olympic silver medalist and victim of Vince Carter’s famous ‘death dive’, didn’t hold back when talking about Embiid, the reigning NBA MVP, on a French radio station on Saturday.
His comments come just days after Embiid was named to US basketball’s Olympic roster.
In March, Jean-Pierre Siutat, president of the French basketball team, criticized the 76ers star for turning down the opportunity to play for Les Bleus, two years after claiming to have started Embiid’s naturalization process to become a citizen. French.
Embiid, who was born in Cameroon, has also been a naturalized US citizen since 2022 and can therefore play for his country of birth, the Stars and Stripes, or for France, despite having no ties to the latter. He turned down the opportunity to play for Cameroon in 2017.
‘I consider this guy a great player as much as a dirty guy. I hate him for the things he did. I think he has no respect for France and also for all the people who ask for a French passport and don’t get one. And with the pretext that he is a great athlete, he achieved it. I find it scandalous, I find it shameful. I don’t care about his excuses, because they’re his words, and his words don’t mean anything,” Weis said.
Knicks draft bust Frederic Weis criticized Joel Embiid for snubbing France for Team USA at this summer’s Olympics in Paris.
Weis, who was selected as a first-round pick by the Knicks in 1999, never played in the NBA.
The former center, who never played professionally in the NBA despite being selected in the first round by the Knicks in 1999, explained in more detail the French basketball federation’s logic for attracting Embiid to the national team, and its rationale. to hold a grudge against the seven-time All-Star.
‘One thing needs to be put into context: Joel Embiid is an extraordinary basketball player. He was the NBA MVP last year and that is why France decided to give him a passport last summer because, on a sporting level, we would have incredible gains,” he stated.
‘For me, we live in an era of sports business and now we choose the national team, more or less like we choose our club. Who makes the best offer? Who gives me the best chance of winning? I’ll go there. And, unfortunately, that is accepted almost everywhere.’
Weis is also known for having been a victim of Vince Carter’s famous ‘death kill’.
When it was pointed out to Weis that Embiid’s naturalization process to become a French citizen began in 2021, and that the player knew the United States was the favorite to win gold at this summer’s Olympics, Weis recalled what happened in Tokyo, three years ago.
“Just remember what happened in 2021,” he said, referring to the Olympic final between France and the United States, which ended in a narrow 87-82 victory for the Stars and Stripes. ‘We were in the final against the United States and the final margin was close. France was always in the highest echelon of contenders.
When asked how he would resolve the entire situation surrounding Embiid, Weis apparently joked: “I would strip him of his French nationality and ban him from entering France.” You will not play in the Olympic Games. You will come to the airport with the US team and we will tell you: ”You have no right to enter the territory, go home. You are Cameroonian, you are American, you are not French, go away.”
Embiid had 29 points, eight rebounds and six assists in Philadelphia’s first game of a first-round playoff series against the Knicks on Saturday. The second game will be played on Monday at Madison Square Garden. Kickoff is at 7:30 pm ET.