Embiid: “I would have chosen Cameroon if they had qualified for the Olympics – LeBron is not like 2 years ago”

THE Joel Embiid he had the choice to play for France or Cameroon, but chose the USA to take part in the Olympics.

“It didn’t help that France set an ultimatum on when the decision had to be made. I saw it on Twitter and was like, “Wow, where did that come from?”. From the conversations I’ve had with America, it’s just been, “Take as much time as you need, there’s no rush. We’d love to have you, but it’s okay if you make another decision.” When someone else is pressuring you, it can feel like you have to make a decision. But one thing that was always known was that Cameroon was the first choice. If they qualify, I will play for my country because that is my dream – to play in the Olympics. I had the opportunity to speak with the French president about what is going on. I told him – one thing that bothered me a lot was the relationship between France and Cameroon and African countries in general. Even now, there’s a lot going on there, there’s a lot of backlash to basically kicking out the French because there’s been so many years of oppression. That was my mindset because I knew it was going to be difficult. With my family in Cameroon, I don’t want to put them through all these things. I want them to be safe and the relationship between France and Cameroon or Africa in general is not good. It was a nice conversation with Macron. He called me and at first I usually don’t answer when the number is unknown. Then I got a message and realized what was going on. It was a nice conversation, it was great“, said the Cameroon-born center of the Sixers.

At the same time, after the difficult USA beat South Sudan (101-100) he talked about closing the gap between the NBA and the rest of the world, while also referring to the… years of LeBron James. “You look at the talent that the USA has, there is the same talent in other teams. And for the talent that is on Team USA, you also have to understand that most of these guys are older. LeBron now is not the LeBron he was a few years ago. So there is a big difference. Everyone would also tell you, and you can see for yourself, the athletic LeBron, the dominant player he was a few years ago, is not the same as he is now. I think people are fooled by the names on the papers. But these names have been built throughout their careers, and now they’re bigger. It’s not what it used to be“, he said.