Following the defeat of the French team in the final of the Euro basketball, Boris Diaw, manager of Les Bleus, returned on the administrative situation of Joel Embiid. He called for the integration of the Cameroonian, naturalized French since July, for the World Cup in 2023.
If he had been there, the look of the final would have been different for sure. This is the feeling of many fans of the French basketball team, swept in the final of the Euro by the great rival Spain. A one-way final that left fans with a taste of unfinished business. All the more so as Les Bleus had in their ranks very experienced players, having already played many international competitions, in front of a Spanish team whose players were novices in a tournament of this kind. Faced with this rout, a name quickly came back on many lips, that of Joel Embiid.
Naturalized French last July, the Cameroonian pivot of the Philadelphia Sixers was for several weeks at the center of debates about his future in terms of his international career. Announced close to the French team, he would have even wanted to participate in this Euro with France, if an injury had not finally prevented him from being fit. A missed appointment for Joel Embiid, which could be a setback. "We know he has become French so why not, we try to have as many good players as possible and then make a team that holds the road and plays well together," said the manager of the French team, Boris Diaw on the airwaves of RMC.
"He does not yet have the FIBA license."
Once back on his feet, seeing Joel Embiid with the band of Evan Fournier and Rudy Gobert will then only be an administrative detail. "He does not yet have the FIBA license, but it would be nice if he could have this license and play for the French team," detailed Boris Diaw, who hopes that this situation will evolve favorably for the World Cup 2023. A competition in which France will take part and during which it nourishes the ambition to hang a podium. A first big appointment before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in front of its public. And with the arrival of a player of Embiid's size, the French team could finally have "this consistency that [we] have been missing", says the manager.
As much to say that the arrival of a player of the stature of Joel Embiid, best scorer of the last regular season in the NBA, would be a reinforcement of weight for this generation of the French team that asks only to be allowed to use its talents to get a little closer to a title that eludes the nation.
