Joel Embiid may end up becoming an Olympic mercenary.
The Philadelphia 76ers star Embiid, who is currently playing with Team USA at the Paris Olympics, made an interesting revelation to reporters this week. Embiid hinted at the possibility of playing for his native Cameroon at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“It’s been a good experience,” he said of the Olympics, per Ron Kroichick of the San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s been a grind, being away from home and family for a few weeks. But the group of guys we have made it easy. Paris is a great city and the next one is LA. It might not be with Team USA, it might be with Cameroon.”
Embiid, who will be 34 by the time of the 2028 Olympics, is a native of Cameroon. But Cameroon did not qualify for this year’s Olympics, meaning that Embiid only had two options — the United States and France. Despite flirting with the idea of suiting up for France and even acquiring a French citizenship at one point, Embiid ultimately chose the U.S. for 2024, citing multiple reasons at the time. As a result, Embiid has been booed heavily by the home crowd throughout the Paris Games and has often returned fire too.
The former NBA MVP Embiid would require a waiver from both USA Basketball and FIBA in order to make the switch to Cameroon for 2024. But the African nation is an up-and-comer on the international basketball scene and already features several NBA players such as Pascal Siakam, Christian Koloko and Yves Missi. If Embiid does indeed choose to join his native country for the 2028 Olympics, he can probably look forward to far less backlash from the host L.A. crowd than he has already gotten in Paris.
