USA Basketball, France prepare to battle over Joel Embiid

Embiid, who finished second in the NBA MVP vote the last two seasons, grew up in Yaoundé, Cameroon. He moved to the United States at age 16 to pursue his dream of playing professional basketball and was drafted by the 76ers third overall in the 2014 draft after one year at the University of Kansas.

While always eligible for the Cameroonian national basketball team, Embiid has never played for his native country internationally, in part because of injuries at the beginningof his pro career. He missed his first two full seasons and most of his third and missed between 18 and 31 games the next four. Last year he played a career-high 68 games, but he and the 76ers haven't wanted to him to rack up more mileage playing games during the summer.

Not only has Embiid become an American citizen this year, but he also quietly received French citizenship in July. In the past, Embiid has speculated about playing for France. 

In 2018 he said, "You never know. I might play for the French national team, but I might also play for Cameroon. I have a lot of relatives in France."

France and the United States have developed a rivalry in international basketball in recent years. France delivered the United States its first Olympics loss since 2004 last year and narrowly lost the gold medal game to the Americans, 87-82. The U.S. also lost to France in the quarterfinals of the Basketball World Cup in 2019. The French, who won silver at EuroBasket this summer, are a serious basketball power, particularly with teenage sensation Victor Wembanyama ready to join the senior team.

With Embiid not tied to any national team so far, it's the international equivalent of LeBron James hitting free agency in 2010. France's Nic Batum started recruiting him back in 2014.

That's "Come play with us," to which Embiid replied, "I'm not French ha."

For his part, Embiid isn't commenting on international hoops, saying, "I just want to be healthy and win a championship and go from there." 

He still has nearly three years until the next Olympic Games, which is plenty of time to hire Jim Gray for a television special and announce, "J'emmène mes talents sur la Côte d'Azur." (I'm taking my talents to the French Riviera.)