Team USA was eliminated by Canada over the weekend and will not place at this years FIBA World Cup. This would be much more shocking if Team USA really sent over the best team, but instead they decided to send over a group with borderline all-stars being the best players. The embarrassment that Team USA experienced over the weekend will have ripple effects for the 2024 Olympics where they will have a chance to remind the world of their dominance. To do that however, a new team will have to be formed and one of the major pieces just might be the big man, Joel Embiid
Since the loss there have already been reports of Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Devin Booker and other perennial all stars declaring their interest in being apart of the 2024 team. If those players join the outcome will obviously be much different than the fourth place finish they just experienced, but to form another “Dream Team”, they would be missing an interior presence. There are American big men who are good players and can fill a role on Team USA, but Joel Embiid is on a totally different level. Bam Adebayo, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Nic Claxton have been brought up as options at center for Team USA so far, but none of them are near the caliber of player Joel Embiid is.
Despite being originally from Cameroon, Joel has citizenship in both France and now the US which makes him eligible to compete for the countries in the Olympics. He also has never played for Cameroon or any country internationally so far in his career, so he would be able to jump right into things and get ready for the Summer Olympics in Paris. With France already having their starting center seemingly decided (Rudy Gobert), it would make the most sense for Joel to join the US for 2024. While Embiid is still much better than Rudy Gobert, the french team has been playing together for years and developed chemistry, while the US team would throw together as many all-stars as they can and figure out chemistry, playing style, etc. later on which would make Joel a seamless fit.
Joel joining Team USA along with the other stars rumored would be the beginning of forming another “Dream Team” for the US and reintroduce the rest of the world to the basketball dominance all Americans expect. It will be Joel’s decision in the end, but the reigning MVP would be a great fit on Team USA and could assert his dominance on the global stage, helping to claim Team USA’s fifth straight gold medal.
