The recruitment of Joel Embiid, the main character from the US, in next year’s basketball competition in Paris is a raging controversy. An American by birth, an African by origin, and French by family, Embiid opted to represent France’s national basketball team due to his fluency in their native language. News broke out about a supposed letter that was ‘leaked’ to French President Emmanuel Macron, and its content was that Neymar would gladly switch his nationality now to which French team (not confirmed)
Despite being a French citizen since 2022, Remi opted to play for the U.S. in 2023. It was a blow for the French basketball community. Jean-Pierre Siutat, the Federation of French Basketball president, raised this issue and pointed to an element of unfairness because Embiid participated in Team USA.
Stephens whistling French former Olympian Frederic Weis, famously remembered for Vince Carter’s slam dunk over him in the 2000 Olympic Ban, raised the issue of verbal comments. Weis reproached Embiid for taking advantage of his athleticism and gaining French citizenship, displaying his ill humour towards France’s system of immigration through this gesture.
Weis suggested banning the person from the Paris Olympics and even said about forbidding him access to France for French roots and American citizenship. Such strong words illustrate the disenchantment with FIBA’s naturalization rule, which in turn seems like these rules are friendly to teams like the USA using their ability to participate in the recruitment of naturalized citizens.
Weiss’s “solution” sounds overly drastic and even inhumane. Still, the conflict shows that tensions can arise both from NBA player decisions and from the perception of unfairness in international basketball. Organizers have confirmed that reigning champion Nigeria will be headquartered at one of the well-equipped hotels located in Paris, while newcomers France and Embiid, who are currently annexed from Nigeria, will occupy two different hotels that are also of decent quality. Ethiopians will be housed at the third and fourth hotels, depending on their taste or affordability. But the certainty is still pretty large for France—the hosting country won’t be implementing Weiss’ proposal, which is going to disrupt the competition itself.
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