When you tell the story of Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the players who will earn center stage are LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Joel Embiid… even if the “Process” earned most of his headlines for how well he was conditioned, as opposed to how well he played.
Some called him out of shape – including fellow Philadelphia 76ers legend Charles Barkley – others called for him to be outright benched, and yet, through it all, the MVP center kept his head down, his mouth shut, and let his game do the talking, including a dominant performance against his all-time NBA rival, Nikola Jokic, to help propel Team USA to the gold medal round.
Considering he is now an NBA gold medalist, it's safe to say Embiid's decision was on the money.
While there was a ton of hate thrown his way, one national personality who believes the “Process” deserves more credit for his efforts and mentality is none other than Tim Bontemps, the ESPN writer who has played a significant role in Embiid's development into a force of nature in the East.
Discussing Embiid's performances at the Olympics while evaluating the best players on Team USA in an appearance on The Hoop Collective, Bontemps noted that while bigs like Anthony Davis were great when their numbers were called, if it wasn't for number 11 – at least during the Olympics – the story of America's efforts may have read very differently indeed.
“And by the way, I don't know if we'll get to it later, but it's also worth pointing out that (Anthony Davis) was great throughout the tournament; he was one of their best players throughout the tournament; he got obliterated by Jokic in that game, and they don't win that game if Joel Embiid isn't on the team,” Bonntemps explained on The Hoop Collective.
“I mean listen, for all the talk, Joel got a lot of smack over the past few weeks for how he was playing, ‘shouldn't be playing, should be benched, play these other guys,' at the end of the day, he was on the team more or less so that they had somebody to go up against Jokic in that game and against the French, which obviously that game went a little differently because Rudy ended up getting benched and didn't play much but when it really mattered in the one game he basically was there to win for them, it was him, Steph, and LeBron with a couple buckets late from KD late that won them that game.”
After the show's host, Brian Windhorst, ran down Embiid's stats both against Serbia and overall, Bontemps continued to gush about Philly's finest, noting that he impacted the game in more ways than just putting up points or bringing in rebounds.
“And set an absolutely devastating screen to set up Steph for that huge 3 with three minutes to go where I think I would have died if I was hit with that screen that leveled I think it might have been (Evan) Fournier,” Bontemps noted. “But look, he took a lot of guff and had moments where he didn't look great, but look, they spent two years recruiting him to have him there for that game, and he delivered.”
Would Team USA have been able to overcome the odds – and Jokic – to make it out of the semis without Embiid? Would France have continued to keep Rudy Gobert on the bench if the biggest player on the court for Team USA was either Bam Adebayo or AD manning the five spot? It's impossible to know, but considering Embiid is now a gold medalist alongside James, Curry, AD, Adebayo, and Tyrese Haliburton – who, by his own admission, didn't do anything – it's safe to say all the courting by Team USA was well worth the effort.
Joel Embiid continues to dominate versus Nikola Jokic
While there's a weird but prevailing narrative that Embiid purposefully ducks Jokic whenever the Sixers have the Denver Nuggets on the books, when you look at the actual numbers, it simply isn't true.
In the eight games the Sixers have played against a Nuggets team with Jokic on the court, Philadelphia has a 6-2 record, according to Statmuse, with Embiid averaging 27.6 points per game, which is roughly comparable with his 27.9 career points per game average. Now granted, Embiid hasn't played a game against the Nuggets in Denver since 2019, with the “Process” missing his last four chances to play in the Mile High City, but hey, when he has been available for Brett Brown, Doc Rivers, or Nick Nurse, the former MVP has played up to his typical standards and has handed Jokic Ls in the process including in the Olympics.
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