Joel Embiid's decision when it comes to the national team he'll be representing in international competitions became a hot topic in recent years, with the Philadelphia 76ers star deciding between two primary suitors in Team USA and Team France. In the end, Embiid decided to go with Team USA, stacking the deck even more for a team that's raring to bounce back from their fourth-place finish during the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

Embiid's choice to represent the United States could not have sat well with the French national team brass, as the Sixers star would have given them a legitimate first option to build the offense around. Nevertheless, France national team mainstay Evan Fournier acknowledged that the very fact that the Sixers star is likely to feature in the 2024 Summer Olympic games in Paris will be good for the proceedings, even if it strengthens the early gold-medal favorites considerably.

“I think it makes them better for sure. They’ve been saying they need a dominant big man and now they have one. So they’re better. It’s good for basketball, for the Olympics. I think basketball is gonna be the main event in Paris next year, so it’s good for the sport,” Fournier said, per Kristian Winfield of New York Daily News.

That is a glass half-full approach for Evan Fournier, who certainly wishes France would have the services of Joel Embiid as they look to bounce back from a dreadful 2023 FIBA World Cup showing, in front of their home crowd in Paris, no less. The missed opportunity to enlist the Sixers star's services also hurts even more due to the fact that, according to Fournier, it was Embiid who first approached the federation.

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“Joel and the French Federation, they’ve been in contact for a while. If I’m not mistaken, it was actually Joel who started the contact with the French Federation. So yeah, we did have an exchange last summer,” Fournier added.

Still, even though France needed Joel Embiid more than Team USA did, it's not all doom and gloom for them. They still have Victor Wembanyama in the pipeline, and Wembanyama's only 19 years of age, so they'll have a foundational star for years to come. But pairing Wembanyama with Embiid is the stuff dreams are made off, and sadly, it won't be coming to fruition.