OLYMPIC GAMES | BASKETBALL
Why are French fans booing Joel Embiid at the 2024 Olympics in Paris?
The Philadelphia 76ers star has been the subject of boos while playing at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris for Team USA.
As Team USA face hosts France for Olympic gold on Saturday night, games being played almost 4,000 miles from US soil have seen one player on the United States Men’s Basketball team have been subject to boos from the home crowd in Paris, France.
Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid has had to play through the jeers as he works his magic on the court, with the Parisian crowd clearly unhappy with the 30-year-old. But why? What’s Paris’ problem with a Cameroonian who has never played professionally in France?
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Why are fans in France booing Joel Embiid?
The 2023 NBA MVP was born on March 16, 1994 in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and moved to the USA as a teenager to pursue his dream of becoming a pro player.
Embiid, who has French family members, was eligible to play for France, and in July 2022 was granted citizenship by the European nation as “a foreigner whose naturalisation is of exceptional interest” to allow him to play for the national team.
However, he took the passport and chose to play for... the USA.
In came the hostile reception from the fans, but Embiid is embracing the chaos, and was seen waving his arms up in the air amidst a wave of jeering in Villeneuve-D’Ascq.
“A lot of people think it’s hate. I see it as love and respect. If I wasn’t an OK basketball player, I would not receive that type of treatment”, Embiid said when asked about the atmposphere.
“So, I see myself as being blessed and that’s why I interact with that type of crowd and that type of stuff. I’m blessed to be here, and I’ve seen worse. I’ve played in worse environments. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before... “I’ve been here for a long time. My son is American. I felt like, ‘I’m living here and it’s a blessing to be an American’. So I said, ‘why not?’”
“That’s all you can do is laugh about it,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said when asked about the reception for the 76ers centre. “He’s done a good job just making light of it. And his teammates obviously have his back. It’s all part of it. I’m sure he knew this was coming. And what I like is that after the French fans would boo, you could hear the American fans cheer. So, everybody seems to be having some fun with it.”
His teammates are also showing support for Embiid, with Anthony Edwards saying “it’s OK. He’s with us. Be mad. We don’t care. He chose us over y’all, so it’s all good.”