Starts around the 4:30 mark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjEmF7Qi5cM
I kind of felt rushed in that decision because I wanted to take as much time as possible and it didn’t help that France put an ultimatum on when the decision had to be made. I didn’t know [the timeline]. I saw it on Twitter and I was like woah, where did this come from? Because I mean from the conversation that I had with the U.S. was, "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." And when you got someone else putting the pressure on you, making it seem like, ‘Oh, you gotta make the decision.’
But then again, one thing that was always known was that Cameroon is the first choice. And if they qualify, I’m playing for my home country because that’s my dream to play in the Olympics. And I had the opportunity to talk to the French president about what was going on. And I told him, I mean, one thing that was kind of bothering me a lot was the relationship between France and Cameroon and African countries in general, historically and even right now. There’s a lot of things going on over there where there’s a lot of push back as far as basically kicking out the French because it’s been so many years of oppression. So that was my mindset because I just knew it would be hard. I still got my family living in Cameroon and 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 in general is not good.
by augustus624
39 Comments
i’m sure this thread will be a mature discussion about the legacy of European imperialism in Africa and the continued economic imperialism France engages in in many former colonies
I get it.
Yeah but the relationship between France and Cameroon was already like that when he flirted with the idea of playing for France.
Obviously USA isn’t as desperate to have him on the team lol. To team USA he’s literally one of the 12 players, they’d be favourites with or without him. It’s a complete different story for France who really could’ve used a super star in his prime.
Yeah it always felt a bit weird for me that people wanted Embiid to play for *France* of all countries. Like Cameroon sure, that makes sense. But he has literally no connection with France besides the fact that Cameroon was a French colony.
props to Joel for taking the hardest road
So if his dream was to play with Cameroon, why not help them qualify?
Maybe I misread but it seems like he wanted the other players to do all the work only to then hop on and take as spot if they qualify. That’s pretty weak.
As for not playing for France, that’s completely understandable and fair given what they’ve done historically in Africa. But if that’s the reasoning he’s using then the USA isn’t all that different. It seems he just wants the medal.
Really the only good outcome was playing for Cameroon and he missed that.
Dude tweaked so hard for.frances president even wrote a letter begging to be French. What a load of nonsense, expected nothing else from Embiid.
He can keep changing his story to make himself look better, but people will still remember his letter to Macron lol
Civil thread with level headed conversations incoming and historical lessons would be learned.
Fuck France. They were committing mass murder in Cameroon during the Cold War. They were killing independence and left-wing dissidents.
He still considered it in the first place and wrote a letter
didn’t he initially go out of his way to play for France or am I misremembering?
Obviously France committed atrocities in Africa and other nations they colonised, but that relationship didn’t change between when he wrote a letter to the PRESIDENT of France asking for citizenship in order to play for their national team, to now. Embiid got French citizenship on a promise to play for their national team, then went back on his word and chose to play for the USA, that seems pretty scummy imo.
Surely USA wouldn’t act like France in its international politics.
nah he just wants to finally win something and is taking the easiest route
“And if they qualify, I’m playing for my home country because that’s my dream to play in the Olympics.”
They would be alot more likely to qualify if, I don’t know, maybe you played for them?
Can’t believe we’re still talking about this guy with an American wife and kid who has lived here since he was a teenager and his decision to play for us. In soccer we celebrate when people come to play for us when they haven’t even stepped in the country before. Embiid is American. It makes sense that he’s okay for the American team. It also makes sense that he flirted with his other options. This is a country of immigrants and this stuff happens all the time in international football
Don’t really understand why he doesn’t play for Cameroon.
Why he and Siakam didn’t play the pre-olympic? Was Cameroon classified to the pre-olympic when he made the decicion? I’m sure that if the 2 played Cameroon could have beat Latvian and Brazil.
Joel Embiid was aware of the issues before he ever thought about the Olympics, he just decided to play for the better team after Team USA approached him. The guy changed his mind, but it wasn’t because he just learned about the relationship between France and Cameroon.
I bet this is PR because people give him shit for jumping on the USA bandwagon.
Ring chasing*
Right, because the USA historically definitely doesn’t have strained relations with African people.
So, uh, why didn’t he support Cameroon in such a hard time then?
Didn’t he request the French citizenship tho?
Then why did he specially apply to be a French citizen to play on the French team? He’s never actually lived in France, he came to the US from Cameroon.
Yeah right. Not because one is successful and the other isn’t.
Why not play for Caneroon then and help them qualify?
I thought there weee issues with Cameroon paying the insurance for Embiid and Siakam to play for their NT?
I’m just salty he’s taking minutes away from the Bam + Anthony Davis combo
Pressure on making the decision?? You got the US team with all NBA player who have played with and against each other countless years. Of course they say take your time, cuz there’s 5 other guys they can get. The other countries want him early so they can get the team culture right.
don’t y’all get tired at some point
So he’s going to give up his French citizenship then? Sounds like he wants his cake and to eat it too.
People in the comments swinging opinions as facts.
To my knowledge there is no confirmation from Embiid or Macron that he wrote a letter. Even if he did it’s likely part of the standard naturalization process similar to how it is in US for extraordinary citizen green card (you have to write a petition).
We know Macron wanted Embiid to play for Team France and gave him a citizenship to make it happen.
This was 2 years ago before Team USA was even an option.
Embiid soft committed to it.
2 years go by and LeBron gets on the phone to Embiid says they need size. Embiid changes his commitment to US.
At the end of the day France has fuck all to do with his personal decision who to play for. All they did was give him citizenship which cost them absolutely nothing. It’s not like he is now abusing that citizenship to harm France.
It’s also possible the recent changes in government further pushed him towards team US. France is a different country now than it was two years ago. Look at Frances biggest star Mbappe comments as of recent (who was also pressure by France a lot and just “went back on his word” – see the pattern here?).
People trying to villanize Embiid for it are fucking weird.
I’m surprised he just gets to pick whatever country to play on. I had been under the impression that you actually had to be from the country to play on its national team. But it sounds like he had the option to play on three, Cameroon, France, and the USA.
Does that mean LeBron could go play for Canada? Or Japan? I don’t understand.
I understand what he means but it feels disingenuous. There’s no way he would have even contemplated playing for France if USA wasn’t possible? Having your cake and eating it too type beat.
I understand not wanting to play for Cameroon, that has its own issues, but, surely, if the goal was to play for Cameroon if they qualify, the move should have been to try to help them qualify?
This would come across a lot more sincere if he didn’t prostrate himself in asking for French citizenship and/or he did some tangible contribution or even just a gesture to improve the condition of Cameroon national team.
I love the concept of telling colonizers to go to hell, but I have some bad news for him regarding the origins of America