While Joel Embiid is sidelined from the Sixers’ opening playoff games in Miami, he’s apparently passing part of the time by looking into the future.
French TV and radio network RMC Sport reported that Embiid has opened discussions with France’s national basketball team about changing his nationality to play for France, which could culminate with him playing for the host nation of the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
It’s not the first time that Embiid, a Cameroon native who has family in France, has considered playing for France. He has never played for Cameroon, though the country has tried to get him to do so. (Another Cameroonian in the NBA whom Embiid knows well, Toronto’s Pascal Siakam, has said he’d like to play for the country but also hasn’t done so yet.)
FIBA, global basketball’s governing body, allows one naturalized player per squad, and France doesn’t have one right now. The team does have multiple NBA stars in Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier, and Nicolas Batum.
Fournier and France’s greatest all-time player, Tony Parker, said in 2018 that they’re against the idea of naturalized players playing for France.
