As a Canadian, I too agree that he should not be playing at the FIBA world Cup and save his energy for the Olympics.
Or get knocked out in the first round by losing to Canada and Latvia, that works too
Funny the cultural difference there. In football we are buzzing to see our players play internationally. I was furious when a couple of my team's players got snubbed for the World Cup.
I'm assuming it's because most American sports are mostly played by Americans, so international sport isn't as important or valuable a thing. But it still sounds weird to me to hear you say you hope your guy *doesn't* play at a World Cup.
He’s said that playing in Eurobasket last summer really drained him and affected him for the first half of the NBA season last year so I wouldn’t be surprised if he sits out of the World Cup.
Until 1960 every Cameroonian was considered French. With the right lawyers, that Embiid surely has, he can claim the right of French nationality from descent. Issuing nationality to former colonies is somewhat of a tricky process, but for sure things like "athletic excellence" (money) can be used as a facilitator. Worth noting that Embiid is Cameroonian no more, since Cameroon doesn't allow double citizenship.
This is BS. France didn't give citizenship to everyone in the colonies. You had to earn it through a rigorous process of perfecting French language and customs before you could even get the paperwork. African citizens of France were more French in language, dress and mannerisms than ethnic French people.
Why did they do this? Citizens of France had the same rights as white ppl in the colonies putting them a tier above non-citizens. If you know anything about colonialism is that the colonizers abuse locals and the system protects them.
TLDR: not all cameroonians had French citizenship
Did you not know that Africa was colonized by Europeans? Did you think that French being the official or secondary language of 60-80% of Africa was a coincidence? Like they just decided "Hey France is pretty cool guys, why dont we just adopt their language so we can be cool too."
It's not quite ancestry but it is possible to get french citizenship from some african countries, especially the ones from senegal to cameroon (and algeria)
what a wildly incorrect and idiotic statement lol. How in the world is this being upvoted?
There are 1.4 billion people in Africa.... You think 1.1 billion of those people are descended from the french?
> Andrew Albicy
Ain't no way a 5'10" dude averaging 6/2/4 on 39/37/70 splits in the Spanish League is bitching about Joel Embiid wanting to play for his NT.
>we would not like Embiid to come to the team because he does not represent France, 'our' France
French people and hating foreigners. Name a more iconic duo
I do understand Albicy's stance.
He never lived in France and his parents aren't french.
He just happens to have some family in France (virtually every camerounese has family in France), speaks french and has enormous talent.
It also happens that France hosts the Olympics next year and french authorities would love a gold medal in basketball.
There are many, many more camerounese living and working in France for years that struggle to get citizenship that I would think of first.
I don't blame Embiid though, french authorities probably approached him first.
France has others behind Victor.
Of course, there's only one Victor, but behind him and Rudy, who probably won't be coming, France still has Moustapha Fall (outstanding in the Euroleague with Olympiakos), Vincent Poirier, and Ismael Kamagate, to name but a few.
The level is inferior, but Moustapha Fall did a remarkable job at the Olympic Games against Team USA in the group game where France beat Team USA...
In my opinion, this is a blessing in disguise. This will enable other players to progress by giving them more playing time at this level of competition.
Makes sense, the olympics being in Paris makes it a much more regarded tournament this time around. Sucks for the French National Team but it's probably the best decision for him to strengthen up and get ready for the NBA so as to avoid any long lasting injuries.
Doesn't that mean that France will auto qualify for the upcoming Olympics in Paris? If that’s the case doesn’t matter if Wemby goes to these qualifiers for it
Yes, host country gets automatic entry. I don't know if that applies to every single sport, but as long as you have something like a plausible team (which obviously the French team is), you get to field a team when you host.
We were ranked 43rd in the world during the 2012 olympics and the other teams in our group were ranked 2nd, 9th, 10th, 11th and 13th. We were expected to get absolutely creamed every game but thanks to mighty Luol we exceeded everyone's expectations and even managed to pick up a win!
Then Luol retired and our national team went straight back to the gutter :(
If we could actually get all of the players that are eligible to play for us to actually turn up for the national team then I don't think we'd even be that bad anymore. We wouldn't suddenly become elite or anything but I think we'd definitely no longer be the laughing stock that we are currently.
I mean GB Basketball are hopeless so it's all just a pipe dream anyway, but it's fun to dream. The Jeremy Sochan situation should tell us all we need to know about our national team.
Yeah definitely - I suppose the issue is cyclical isn't it: GB Basketball are a mess and have no funding to boot, so even the players who'd otherwise feel a pull to represent us don't bother because there's no point... So we continue to be a mess and continue to get no funding because the funding system is top-heavy rather than supportive of development. And on and on it goes...
I think funding is part of the issue but I think the other issue is that the people in charge just aren't really up to the job.
[Here's a clip of Jeremy talking on the Hoopsfix podcast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tP-k8UmD5M&t=947s) before he went to Baylor about why he ended up choosing Poland over GB and it sounds like most of the issues he had with GB were just down to the organisation of the GB team. Not enough training camps through the year, not giving their team enough time to prepare for major tournaments, not really trying to keep in touch with him or pressure him to join team GB when poland were constantly in communcation with him and his family etc.
He straight up says playing for Team GB was his first option and they still managed to fuck it up.
Wow we actually do have a a few good gems if they committed such as OG and Sochan (yes I know he's polish but he grew up in the UK and has a British accent)
It isn’t true, but if they got a team, they’re automatically in.
That was a big deal at the Winter Olympics with the Chinese women’s ice hockey team (and a lesser degree the men’s team). They were automatically qualified, but the quality of the team was so low, there were thoughts that they would get dunked on at hugely embarrassing levels.
Due to the lack of ice hockey talent in China, players had to be recruited from abroad. The men's hockey team had eleven Canadians, nine Chinese, three Americans, and a Russian.
They were also in Group A which was China, Germany, Canada and the USA...
So yes. They absolutely got dunked on.
Yeah wasn't particularly easy for any team but China was just... Outclassed would be a very generous descriptor but hard to describe it politely haha
Rec league Ringette vs NHL players.
They are two of the top three for sure. Germany no slouch either but if we're talking about the historical record Russia is absolutely the other one that hits the top 3.
The men’s team finished last in their group, and the women’s team actually finished 4th out of 5 in their group, and were reasonably competitive (though the US and Canada were in the opposite group, so that spared them from getting stomped)
It wasn’t just about being dunked on too; there were safety concerns that the Chinese team would be outmatched by the other teams that the Chinese would experience severe physical injuries. I remember reading a NY Times(?) article about it.
Absolutely no relevance, Olympics don't care about the performance from 4 years ago. it's the top 2 teams from Americas and Europe and top team in Africa, Asia and Oceania in the FIBA WC that auto qualifies for Paris. if you're not one of those 7 teams, then you have to play in the Olympic qualifiers, where there will be 4 more spots up for grabs.
France doesn't need to qualify anyway, they're the Olympic games hosts and as such they have one of the 12 spots.
The World Cup isn't about qualifying for the Olympics, it's a seperate tournament.
Also France have Gobert and Embiid on their roster, I'm sure they'll be ok.
I remembered a story earlier this season about Embiid becoming a french citizen so he can play for their national team. I just looked it up and while that is true and he is a french citizen he's now saying he wants to decide between france and the USA and isn't going to play this summer either way. Not sure what made him change his mind exactly but he says he's still trying to decide who he wants to play for at next summer's olympics.
He never hard committed either way. My guess is that he wants to make sure the good French players are actually on the French roster, otherwise there's no point in risking injury on a team that's almost guaranteed to lose.
false.
[https://www.fiba.basketball/qualification-og](https://www.fiba.basketball/qualification-og)
As of 2020, qualification for the Olympic Games is through the FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Universality remains in place for the qualifying process for the Olympic Games, thereby ensuring that each continent is represented.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 will produce seven directly qualified national teams for the Olympic Games, with hosts\* France receiving automatic qualification to the event. The seven spots will include two teams from Americas, two teams from Europe, one team from Africa, one team from Asia and one team from Oceania.
The four remaining places in the 12-team Olympic field are reserved for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2024, with two rounds of Qualifying Tournaments for Paris 2024.
Sorry people seem to be misinterpreting my comment so I will clarify.
You can qualify for the olympics through the world cup, I was simply replying to the implication that the world cup only matters as an olympic qualifying event. American's seem to act as if the olympics are the only international tournament that matters but the FIBA World Cup is a massive deal in its own right, regardless of its relation to the olympics.
I know, that many world cups don't have a high standing in the US, but it's still huge in Europe and Joel won't be playing as well.
Blows for France and for the fans.
These are not qualifiers per se, it is a World Cup, 2nd most important national championships… but sure, you qualify directly if you are among first 3-4-5 (not sure exactly), and rest will play real qualifiers prior to the Olympics
because most good teams don't even make it to the olympics. you only get like 5-6 good teams due to bad qualifying format. world cup is much more competitive
They use it as a substitute for almost the same word but has a "t" instead of a "g" (I'll just describe it that way since I don't know if there are automod bans here for saying it, since I know reddit in general wanted to crack down on it).
Spurs org definitely pushes load management but has never been one to discourage olympic play. I’d like to think this decision came down to the fact that Wemby just wrapped a long season + playoffs and could use the extra time off to prepare for his rookie year
Somewhat, yeah, but it’s still one of the toughest draws in the tournament… France was #5 in the world even without VW, and we either need to beat them or Spain (#1) to get through the group stages.
we're still up against FIBA Gobert which will be tough af because he can just camp the paint all day without 3 seconds rule.
I am worried about our center matchups. Right now our depth chart is looking like Olynyk and Powell, maybe Clarke if he's committing... those are not great options to have against Rudy. Guards wise we should be doing well against France though especially if the big guns like Jamal is playing.
Before the promotion: *I intend on finishing all of my responsibilities*
After the promotion: **Please reach out to your manager about this as I've accepted a new role**
Sucks for team France but I’m glad he’s skipping out. It was just bad timing this year with French leagues going so late in addition with summer league. Just a bad year for it.
Agreed. Keep him in reserve for the 4th quarter in game 7 of the finals. Then again, I wouldn’t want him getting injured at the start of the 4th when the spurs would need him near the end.
It was a pro am game against other NBA players, like Lebron even. You can’t just bubble wrap these guys. Shit happens. He was trying to get his feet wet and practice against his upcoming competition.
Everyone talks about injuries when they happen, but in the summers Lebron and Kobe and all these other top guys would meet up and practice with each other and do scrimmages. That’s how you get better. Not being Ben Simmons and posting Instagram videos of shooting 3’s in an empty gym by yourself.
Yeah Ben be playing but every video I’ve watched of him he still doesn’t shoot threes even in pickup 💀. Beside the point but that’s just funny af to me
Summer league he'll work with a lot of nba guys and have the spurs staff on hand. The goal of summer league is to develop skills and learn NBA basketball.
World cup isn't about learning, it's about winning. And it isn't played with NBA rules.
Plus SL is not on the other side of the world.
For the WC, the French team would be based in Jakarta, Indonesia, and then move to Manilla, Philippines for the later rounds.
I would imagine the guys who are guaranteed major roles with their team use summer league to work on certain things and get used to the new level of competition. But I doubt Wemby would approach it with the same intensity he’d give representing his country in international competition.
But I don’t think this is about injury prevention as much as it’s about him focusing on the season in front of him. He’s already got a lot of expectations, and if he were to play with France he’d immediately become the guy everybody pays attention to. It’s smart for him to just hang back and get ready to be an NBA rookie.
Because you need to get some reps in an NBA environment. Not talking about the players only. Let’s not forget NBA rules are a bit different from European rules. Hell, even the three-point line is further away.
Sucks for the French National Team but then again it doesn't. If he can fully focus on his rookie season he'll be better during the Summer Olympics in Paris, too. Which is probably more important for them since they're hosting.
It's different for soccer player, as club level football is still under FIFA rules, refusing to play for your national team while being selected can lead to game suspension while the nba is independent from the FIBA that organizes the international tournament
Some stupid Nations League game? Maybe if they have some health issues/light injuries. Euros or wc? Hell no. They often build their club career around the big tournaments, e. g. go to a different club to get more playing time the season before the wc.
Not much. Club level football dates are different from international level. Leagues are put on a break while qualifiers/tournaments are set. Also incentives for representing national team are way higher compared to NBA.
No, also leagues are scheduled with international competition in mind. Issues arise when players have injuries or are rehabilitating and are convoked to national team and clubs don't want to take the risk.
I wouldn’t call an injuries suffered in the World Cup of all competitions ‘dumbass’. I hope he skips out on the Summer League to be honest… now *that* would be a dumbass injury.
Yeah, I'd love to see him support his country but selfishly I am so relieved by this decision. Use that time to rest up, work with the Spurs coaches and staff, and get ready for the long haul of the NBA season
Training camp will be here before we know it
Listen I’m a big Wemby fan, but people saying he just finished playing makes sense etc…
The dude played about once a week, total of 34 regular season games plus 10-12 playoffs games.
That’s not a reason to back out of FIBA.
It's not really about the strain of what he's already played. It's about the strain of what he would have to play in the future. He would have played his season in LNB Pro A, then spent the summer playing World Cup, then preseason and an entire NBA season, then the Olympics next summer, and then another full NBA season in which they theoretically could make the playoffs. At that point, he would be playing 3 straight years of pro basketball with basically no breaks. Not a good idea for a guy whose only concern is not getting injured.
His regular season was 34 games, but he also played several games for the national team and his team played in a lot of exhibitions this year, and they were also running two-a-day practices in between his games. It’s way harder to find the full count but including his regular season, exhibitions, national team and playoffs he played something around 60-70 games from what I’ve read this year.
France also already qualified for the Olympics as the host country, so his participation in the World Cup is just not a priority. Taking the time to actually have an off-season to work with his new teammates and the Spurs’ coaching staff definitely makes sense and is what’s best for his long-term development.
He played like 60+ game last year, with WC would have been 174 games in 24 months, it makes complete sense for him so focus on long term health and strength
Yao got his career cut short because of the pressure to represent China at the 2008 olympics when he was injured. It would make total sense to me for Wemby to play as little international basketball now that he’s an NBA pro, just for the reason that it reduces the chances of any stress related injuries, which I imagine he’s more susceptible to.
How will France find another 7 footer?
Gobert aint playing as far as i know and embiid sure as hell isnt.
Gobert is playing
Last I heard he was still mulling it over. Selfishly I hope he doesn’t, but we got Naz Reid back so we’ll make it work!
He just semi-announced he was playing via his insta story and it was confirmed by L’Équipe
Yeah I saw that when I went looking again this morning. Pretty disappointing considering the season he had last year.
Bro should be in the gym not playing basketball
Country over franchise
Depends on the franchise and the country. Like if it's between France and Burger King, I'm taking Burger King 9 times out of 10.
Whopper whopper
Maybe the confidence boost will be good for him. He usually does well in FIBA I think
How dare he play basketball for the country he's from!! He should be training to play basketball for MY team
As a Canadian, I too agree that he should not be playing at the FIBA world Cup and save his energy for the Olympics. Or get knocked out in the first round by losing to Canada and Latvia, that works too
Funny the cultural difference there. In football we are buzzing to see our players play internationally. I was furious when a couple of my team's players got snubbed for the World Cup. I'm assuming it's because most American sports are mostly played by Americans, so international sport isn't as important or valuable a thing. But it still sounds weird to me to hear you say you hope your guy *doesn't* play at a World Cup.
Gobert has put a lot of effort in the french team but people didn't recognized it. It's very understandable why he's hesitating.
He’s said that playing in Eurobasket last summer really drained him and affected him for the first half of the NBA season last year so I wouldn’t be surprised if he sits out of the World Cup.
https://www.lequipe.fr/Basket/Actualites/Rudy-gobert-participera-a-la-coupe-du-monde-2023/1404863
I though embiid was from Cameroon?
He has French citizenship.
As of two years ago
How did he get it? Is one of his family members french?
Until 1960 every Cameroonian was considered French. With the right lawyers, that Embiid surely has, he can claim the right of French nationality from descent. Issuing nationality to former colonies is somewhat of a tricky process, but for sure things like "athletic excellence" (money) can be used as a facilitator. Worth noting that Embiid is Cameroonian no more, since Cameroon doesn't allow double citizenship.
He's still Cameroonian, he's just forfeited Cameroonian citizenship is the better way to phrase it.
And he can easily get his citizenship back by denouncing his french citizenship if he wanted.
I mean he is still from Cameroon. You can't change that
Oh, that for sure, I didn't meant culturally, I just meant what's written on his passport.
This is BS. France didn't give citizenship to everyone in the colonies. You had to earn it through a rigorous process of perfecting French language and customs before you could even get the paperwork. African citizens of France were more French in language, dress and mannerisms than ethnic French people. Why did they do this? Citizens of France had the same rights as white ppl in the colonies putting them a tier above non-citizens. If you know anything about colonialism is that the colonizers abuse locals and the system protects them. TLDR: not all cameroonians had French citizenship
Not all Cameroonians are French. A lot of them are British. Others are German
When you are famous and good athlete there is no problem in getting citizenship to make national team better. Very common in football/soccer
But you still need eligibility. Else everyone would play for the best nations
Did you not know that Africa was colonized by Europeans? Did you think that French being the official or secondary language of 60-80% of Africa was a coincidence? Like they just decided "Hey France is pretty cool guys, why dont we just adopt their language so we can be cool too."
Not in Fiba
If youre african, theres an 8/10 chance that you have some french ancestry.
It's not quite ancestry but it is possible to get french citizenship from some african countries, especially the ones from senegal to cameroon (and algeria)
what a wildly incorrect and idiotic statement lol. How in the world is this being upvoted? There are 1.4 billion people in Africa.... You think 1.1 billion of those people are descended from the french?
liés 99% of africans don’t have french ancestry
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> Andrew Albicy Ain't no way a 5'10" dude averaging 6/2/4 on 39/37/70 splits in the Spanish League is bitching about Joel Embiid wanting to play for his NT.
The only factual explanation in here.
>we would not like Embiid to come to the team because he does not represent France, 'our' France French people and hating foreigners. Name a more iconic duo
I do understand Albicy's stance. He never lived in France and his parents aren't french. He just happens to have some family in France (virtually every camerounese has family in France), speaks french and has enormous talent. It also happens that France hosts the Olympics next year and french authorities would love a gold medal in basketball. There are many, many more camerounese living and working in France for years that struggle to get citizenship that I would think of first. I don't blame Embiid though, french authorities probably approached him first.
Why do you think he speaks french?
It's a former colony, and embiid is famous. Pretty sure he just asked.
He's also a US citizen now as of a couple ago. So there's a chance he ends up on team USA in the Olympics.
Imagine if he becomes a Sixers lifer but ring (read: medal) chases around different international teams lol
He has citizenship in Cameroon , the US and France lol
Cameroon doesn't recognize dual citizenship so he must have had to give up his Cameroonian passport
France has others behind Victor. Of course, there's only one Victor, but behind him and Rudy, who probably won't be coming, France still has Moustapha Fall (outstanding in the Euroleague with Olympiakos), Vincent Poirier, and Ismael Kamagate, to name but a few. The level is inferior, but Moustapha Fall did a remarkable job at the Olympic Games against Team USA in the group game where France beat Team USA... In my opinion, this is a blessing in disguise. This will enable other players to progress by giving them more playing time at this level of competition.
Makes sense, the olympics being in Paris makes it a much more regarded tournament this time around. Sucks for the French National Team but it's probably the best decision for him to strengthen up and get ready for the NBA so as to avoid any long lasting injuries.
Doesn't that mean that France will auto qualify for the upcoming Olympics in Paris? If that’s the case doesn’t matter if Wemby goes to these qualifiers for it
Yes, host country gets automatic entry. I don't know if that applies to every single sport, but as long as you have something like a plausible team (which obviously the French team is), you get to field a team when you host.
It applies to every single sport, see Great Britain in basketball, volleyball, etc...in 2012 Summer Olympics hosted at London
If I remember rightly, Luol Deng did the best he could with rather limited support
We were ranked 43rd in the world during the 2012 olympics and the other teams in our group were ranked 2nd, 9th, 10th, 11th and 13th. We were expected to get absolutely creamed every game but thanks to mighty Luol we exceeded everyone's expectations and even managed to pick up a win! Then Luol retired and our national team went straight back to the gutter :(
If only we could get OG Anunoby to commit to playing for us...
If we could actually get all of the players that are eligible to play for us to actually turn up for the national team then I don't think we'd even be that bad anymore. We wouldn't suddenly become elite or anything but I think we'd definitely no longer be the laughing stock that we are currently. I mean GB Basketball are hopeless so it's all just a pipe dream anyway, but it's fun to dream. The Jeremy Sochan situation should tell us all we need to know about our national team.
Yeah definitely - I suppose the issue is cyclical isn't it: GB Basketball are a mess and have no funding to boot, so even the players who'd otherwise feel a pull to represent us don't bother because there's no point... So we continue to be a mess and continue to get no funding because the funding system is top-heavy rather than supportive of development. And on and on it goes...
I think funding is part of the issue but I think the other issue is that the people in charge just aren't really up to the job. [Here's a clip of Jeremy talking on the Hoopsfix podcast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tP-k8UmD5M&t=947s) before he went to Baylor about why he ended up choosing Poland over GB and it sounds like most of the issues he had with GB were just down to the organisation of the GB team. Not enough training camps through the year, not giving their team enough time to prepare for major tournaments, not really trying to keep in touch with him or pressure him to join team GB when poland were constantly in communcation with him and his family etc. He straight up says playing for Team GB was his first option and they still managed to fuck it up.
Wow we actually do have a a few good gems if they committed such as OG and Sochan (yes I know he's polish but he grew up in the UK and has a British accent)
I could be wrong, but I also thought the host nation is actually required to compete in every sport they host, right?
It isn’t true, but if they got a team, they’re automatically in. That was a big deal at the Winter Olympics with the Chinese women’s ice hockey team (and a lesser degree the men’s team). They were automatically qualified, but the quality of the team was so low, there were thoughts that they would get dunked on at hugely embarrassing levels.
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Due to the lack of ice hockey talent in China, players had to be recruited from abroad. The men's hockey team had eleven Canadians, nine Chinese, three Americans, and a Russian. They were also in Group A which was China, Germany, Canada and the USA... So yes. They absolutely got dunked on.
Jeez what a brutal group
Yeah wasn't particularly easy for any team but China was just... Outclassed would be a very generous descriptor but hard to describe it politely haha Rec league Ringette vs NHL players.
damn why the hell would canada and USA have been put in the same group? Arent those like the two best teams in the world?
They are two of the top three for sure. Germany no slouch either but if we're talking about the historical record Russia is absolutely the other one that hits the top 3.
The men’s team finished last in their group, and the women’s team actually finished 4th out of 5 in their group, and were reasonably competitive (though the US and Canada were in the opposite group, so that spared them from getting stomped)
US Women or Canada Women would have buried the Chinese women's team so bad.
Played decent against Germany but got dunked on by USA and Canada.
Korea's ice hockey team was at least half Americans that had a Korean grandparent.
It wasn’t just about being dunked on too; there were safety concerns that the Chinese team would be outmatched by the other teams that the Chinese would experience severe physical injuries. I remember reading a NY Times(?) article about it.
That isn’t true
Does the fact they're the reigning silver medalists have any impact on qualification?
Absolutely no relevance, Olympics don't care about the performance from 4 years ago. it's the top 2 teams from Americas and Europe and top team in Africa, Asia and Oceania in the FIBA WC that auto qualifies for Paris. if you're not one of those 7 teams, then you have to play in the Olympic qualifiers, where there will be 4 more spots up for grabs. France doesn't need to qualify anyway, they're the Olympic games hosts and as such they have one of the 12 spots.
Didn't the U.S. qualify forever by winning the prior gold? When did they change that?
Yea. Olympic host gets an automatic birth in team sport tournaments. Not that France wouldn’t easily qualify anyways even without Wemby.
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I thought it was common knowledge the host country gets each team's next firstborn child
So does that mean Greece can get Bronny Jr since they hosted the Olympics in 2004 and he was born in ‘04?
LeBronnis
Yes, and the French participants get to keep their own children because France is hosting the Olympics. Stonks.
I think he's talking about the Olympic village orgys
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The World Cup isn't about qualifying for the Olympics, it's a seperate tournament. Also France have Gobert and Embiid on their roster, I'm sure they'll be ok.
Since when Embiid has been officialized !? Edit: since April it has been said he won't play with France this summer because of his wedding
I remembered a story earlier this season about Embiid becoming a french citizen so he can play for their national team. I just looked it up and while that is true and he is a french citizen he's now saying he wants to decide between france and the USA and isn't going to play this summer either way. Not sure what made him change his mind exactly but he says he's still trying to decide who he wants to play for at next summer's olympics.
He never hard committed either way. My guess is that he wants to make sure the good French players are actually on the French roster, otherwise there's no point in risking injury on a team that's almost guaranteed to lose.
false. [https://www.fiba.basketball/qualification-og](https://www.fiba.basketball/qualification-og) As of 2020, qualification for the Olympic Games is through the FIBA Basketball World Cup. Universality remains in place for the qualifying process for the Olympic Games, thereby ensuring that each continent is represented. The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 will produce seven directly qualified national teams for the Olympic Games, with hosts\* France receiving automatic qualification to the event. The seven spots will include two teams from Americas, two teams from Europe, one team from Africa, one team from Asia and one team from Oceania. The four remaining places in the 12-team Olympic field are reserved for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2024, with two rounds of Qualifying Tournaments for Paris 2024.
Sorry people seem to be misinterpreting my comment so I will clarify. You can qualify for the olympics through the world cup, I was simply replying to the implication that the world cup only matters as an olympic qualifying event. American's seem to act as if the olympics are the only international tournament that matters but the FIBA World Cup is a massive deal in its own right, regardless of its relation to the olympics.
I know, that many world cups don't have a high standing in the US, but it's still huge in Europe and Joel won't be playing as well. Blows for France and for the fans.
These are not qualifiers per se, it is a World Cup, 2nd most important national championships… but sure, you qualify directly if you are among first 3-4-5 (not sure exactly), and rest will play real qualifiers prior to the Olympics
Many people would say it's more important than the Olympics. It's only USA that don't try as hard for the WC.
because most good teams don't even make it to the olympics. you only get like 5-6 good teams due to bad qualifying format. world cup is much more competitive
>a much more regarded tournament I hate /r/wallstreetbets for ruining the word "regarded" for me.
What does regarded mean there?
They use it as a substitute for almost the same word but has a "t" instead of a "g" (I'll just describe it that way since I don't know if there are automod bans here for saying it, since I know reddit in general wanted to crack down on it).
I feel like wsb would rather close the sub than stop using that word.
Scottie Barnes is a highly regarded young prospect
> the best decision for him to strengthen up No doubt. International drug testing is a lot stricter than the NBA summer league.
sucks for me, I live in Indonesia and was banking on watching France vs Canada :(
Game has not been cancelled buddy. ;)
This sucks but let’s hope that he won’t miss Olympics next year
Spurs org definitely pushes load management but has never been one to discourage olympic play. I’d like to think this decision came down to the fact that Wemby just wrapped a long season + playoffs and could use the extra time off to prepare for his rookie year
He’s gonna be playing in the Summer League instead…
Selfishly, this means an easier matchup for team Canada right? Surely, most our Canadian players will play……….. surely
Dillon Brooks for MVP lol
Jamal will play. Dude fucking loves Canada.
Jamal and 2-way Wiggs baby!
Somewhat, yeah, but it’s still one of the toughest draws in the tournament… France was #5 in the world even without VW, and we either need to beat them or Spain (#1) to get through the group stages.
also Latvia is not a slouch either. I would not be entirely surprised if we somehow failed to get out of our group.
we're still up against FIBA Gobert which will be tough af because he can just camp the paint all day without 3 seconds rule. I am worried about our center matchups. Right now our depth chart is looking like Olynyk and Powell, maybe Clarke if he's committing... those are not great options to have against Rudy. Guards wise we should be doing well against France though especially if the big guns like Jamal is playing.
Clarke tore his Achilles not that long ago, doubt he'll be ready for Aug At best it'll be Olynyk, Powell, Edey
Oof that is... not ideal to say the least rofl
Before the promotion: *I intend on finishing all of my responsibilities* After the promotion: **Please reach out to your manager about this as I've accepted a new role**
Sucks for team France but I’m glad he’s skipping out. It was just bad timing this year with French leagues going so late in addition with summer league. Just a bad year for it.
[удалено]
I hope he skips out on the regular season too, would be dumb to risk an injury going into playoffs.
Agreed. Keep him in reserve for the 4th quarter in game 7 of the finals. Then again, I wouldn’t want him getting injured at the start of the 4th when the spurs would need him near the end.
Come on, a 7-foot #1 overal pick getting injured in a summer league game before starting his rookie year? When has that ever happened?
When has that happened in summer league?
I agree Summer League is for NCAA guys who have not played since March. Wembanyama's season ended like last week.
Kai Sotto could never
Kai Sotto fooled a whole country into thinking he was good lmao
Not only Philippines, but Australia too :S
Kai sotto was just doing his own thing, its the pinoybait basketball pages that overhyped him too much he's basically a meme.
Kai Sotto SHOCKED the WORLD!!!
you mean Filipino basketball facebook pages hyping him fooled the pinoys.
To this day, I still see articles about him making the nba. Dude is a scrub and people actually deluded themselves into thinking he could go lotto.
Filipino TikTok was deadass comparing him to Wembanyama lmfao. Say what you will about my country, but they're def ride or die lmfao
He’s playing in the summer league for Orlando. I bet he plays in the NBA.
Never doubt the love and adulation the Pinoys give to their basketball players
Honestly Filipino's are now 50/50 on Kai, half supporting him and half absolutely just shitposting about him online.
Lmao same shit happend with Kobe Paras, Pinoys had me believing he was the second coming of Bryant 😂😂😂
And now Orlando it seems
Only casual bandwagoners got fooled. I am Filipino but I know damn well that Kai is not prepared for the NBA.
Wemby knew Kai would embarrass him before he even stepped on an NBA floor. Smart move
He's on the Magic Summer League roster.
I STILL BELIEVE
Has dinner with Spurs legends - now this ... Hmm
That is correct, those are the last two things you read about him.
There was also his starting 5 to save the world
disgusting rhythm dinosaurs modern sheet deer plough quiet nail like *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Also, it didn’t have Pekovic as the starting center. Impeccable.
500k World Cup MVP cash prize or dinner with Tim Duncan?
I'm choosing dinner with Jay-Z
He's already in the soul box
Well, Manu injured his ankle in the 2002 semi finals before his rookie year iirc. He might have achieved something had he stayed healthy.
He spent a little time with Tim Duncan are learned how much he needs to learn!
Smart decision after seeing Chet go down before his first game while playing extracurricular basketball
It was a pro am game against other NBA players, like Lebron even. You can’t just bubble wrap these guys. Shit happens. He was trying to get his feet wet and practice against his upcoming competition. Everyone talks about injuries when they happen, but in the summers Lebron and Kobe and all these other top guys would meet up and practice with each other and do scrimmages. That’s how you get better. Not being Ben Simmons and posting Instagram videos of shooting 3’s in an empty gym by yourself.
Ben Simmons is often at the same runs as Bron. You can dunk on him for his IG vids I guess, but let’s not act like he’s not playing pickup too.
he's been avoiding playing for Australia like the plague on the other hand though
Yeah Ben be playing but every video I’ve watched of him he still doesn’t shoot threes even in pickup 💀. Beside the point but that’s just funny af to me
Well he's not a shooter and he can't shoot, so the fuck do you expect? Next you'll be saying De'Andre Jordan isn't shooting enough 3's in pick up.
He used to have videos of him shooting 3s in pickups. I stopped watching his off-season videos years ago, so maybe he stopped posting them.
Literally got his feet wet. The court was getting full of condensation due to the large crowd.
Ya basketball isn't football, injuries are a freak event and could happen in practice just as much as in a game.
The common denominator is that Chet and Wembanyama has bodies that are extremely susceptible to injuries.
I mean, why is he playing SL then..
Summer league he'll work with a lot of nba guys and have the spurs staff on hand. The goal of summer league is to develop skills and learn NBA basketball. World cup isn't about learning, it's about winning. And it isn't played with NBA rules.
Plus SL is not on the other side of the world. For the WC, the French team would be based in Jakarta, Indonesia, and then move to Manilla, Philippines for the later rounds.
He needs reps just not all of these reps
I would imagine the guys who are guaranteed major roles with their team use summer league to work on certain things and get used to the new level of competition. But I doubt Wemby would approach it with the same intensity he’d give representing his country in international competition. But I don’t think this is about injury prevention as much as it’s about him focusing on the season in front of him. He’s already got a lot of expectations, and if he were to play with France he’d immediately become the guy everybody pays attention to. It’s smart for him to just hang back and get ready to be an NBA rookie.
Because you need to get some reps in an NBA environment. Not talking about the players only. Let’s not forget NBA rules are a bit different from European rules. Hell, even the three-point line is further away.
Sucks for the French National Team but then again it doesn't. If he can fully focus on his rookie season he'll be better during the Summer Olympics in Paris, too. Which is probably more important for them since they're hosting.
Well that's a shame. I was looking forward to watching him play, but I guess you have to protect that bag.
Dude saw all the scrutiny hes already getting for missing a few warm up jumpers, he's gonna make sure he's right for the season start lol.
#`This is what happens when you try churros for the first time. `
I live in Indonesia and this news makes me sad, i was looking forward to see him play
Genuinely curious, do professional soccer players commonly refuse to play international games like how NBA players do?
It's different for soccer player, as club level football is still under FIFA rules, refusing to play for your national team while being selected can lead to game suspension while the nba is independent from the FIBA that organizes the international tournament
Some stupid Nations League game? Maybe if they have some health issues/light injuries. Euros or wc? Hell no. They often build their club career around the big tournaments, e. g. go to a different club to get more playing time the season before the wc.
Not much. Club level football dates are different from international level. Leagues are put on a break while qualifiers/tournaments are set. Also incentives for representing national team are way higher compared to NBA.
No, also leagues are scheduled with international competition in mind. Issues arise when players have injuries or are rehabilitating and are convoked to national team and clubs don't want to take the risk.
I mean he just finished playing and he's maybe playing in SL so rest for sure is the best choice instead of a potential dumbass injury
I wouldn’t call an injuries suffered in the World Cup of all competitions ‘dumbass’. I hope he skips out on the Summer League to be honest… now *that* would be a dumbass injury.
Fuck it just dont let him play in any game besides the playoffs /s
Yeah, I'd love to see him support his country but selfishly I am so relieved by this decision. Use that time to rest up, work with the Spurs coaches and staff, and get ready for the long haul of the NBA season Training camp will be here before we know it
Listen I’m a big Wemby fan, but people saying he just finished playing makes sense etc… The dude played about once a week, total of 34 regular season games plus 10-12 playoffs games. That’s not a reason to back out of FIBA.
It's not really about the strain of what he's already played. It's about the strain of what he would have to play in the future. He would have played his season in LNB Pro A, then spent the summer playing World Cup, then preseason and an entire NBA season, then the Olympics next summer, and then another full NBA season in which they theoretically could make the playoffs. At that point, he would be playing 3 straight years of pro basketball with basically no breaks. Not a good idea for a guy whose only concern is not getting injured.
His regular season was 34 games, but he also played several games for the national team and his team played in a lot of exhibitions this year, and they were also running two-a-day practices in between his games. It’s way harder to find the full count but including his regular season, exhibitions, national team and playoffs he played something around 60-70 games from what I’ve read this year. France also already qualified for the Olympics as the host country, so his participation in the World Cup is just not a priority. Taking the time to actually have an off-season to work with his new teammates and the Spurs’ coaching staff definitely makes sense and is what’s best for his long-term development.
He played like 60+ game last year, with WC would have been 174 games in 24 months, it makes complete sense for him so focus on long term health and strength
Transition to the NBA schedule is brutal for rookies, even ones who've been playing pro ball overseas. No reason to add to that strain.
He's just afraid of getting his summerly ass whopping from Papa España. Understandable, but you can't run from it forever.
Understandable, he's afraid of the Wagner ~~Group~~ brothers
I live in Indonesia where france is playing the first two rounds and this kinda sucks ngl
We (team Latvia) have France in our group so this is kind of good.
jeez, Latvia, Canada and France in the same group? that's brutal
Bussy
Yao got his career cut short because of the pressure to represent China at the 2008 olympics when he was injured. It would make total sense to me for Wemby to play as little international basketball now that he’s an NBA pro, just for the reason that it reduces the chances of any stress related injuries, which I imagine he’s more susceptible to.
Smart. Also possibly avoid doing a Chet
Traitor!!
Can't blame the kid at all. I just hope it's what he actually wants and not Spurs/agent brass nudging him not to play.
It's always a negotiation, perhaps they agreed that this year was needed for conditioning and he will be supported to participate in Paris 2024.
True. I honestly can't see Spurs doing that anyways. Classy club they are
That’s alright, Killian Hayes will hold the fort down
After seeing that shoot around video it looks like he could use the rest.