Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid and Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert could soon become teammates, albeit not in the NBA.
According to Eurohoops (citing a report by French outlet RMC Sport), Embiid has apparently started the process of obtaining French nationality that will allow him to compete as part of the France national basketball team in the upcoming Olympics.
Of course as everyone knows, Gobert stars for Les Bleus alongside fellow NBA players Nicolas Batum and Evan Fournier. Sure enough, adding an MVP-caliber player in Embiid makes the Frenchmen major threats to the other powerhouse nations in basketball.
A Cameroon native, Embiid has long expressed interest in playing for France. Back in 2018, the Sixers center even highlighted that possibility while mentioning he has a lot of relatives in the country.
In the same year, it was revealed that France had plans to pursue Joel Embiid to get him to play for the national team. Nonetheless, French icon Tony Parker was against the idea at that time, noting that “you have to play the national team with the players who are from the country, who grew up there, all that.”
It remains to be seen what will happen to Joel Embiid's application to get that French nationality, but for now, he needs to focus on the Sixers and their bid to make it to the Finals. The big man has been ruled out for Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals series because of a head injury, with his status for the other contests still unkown.
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