By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Several months of rumors and speculations shy of concrete developments regarding which country Joel Embiid chooses to represent in FIBA international competitions if any.
Rudy Gobert was among the current players of the France senior national team welcoming the potential addition of the Philadelphia 76ers superstar. In a revisit, he talked to Joe Vardon of The Athletic about what would be required from Embiid to become a member of Les Bleus.
“For me, the most important thing is if his heart tells him to be a part of Team France,” he stressed rushing away from the notion of any player simply boosting the squad without further attachments, “I want him to do it for the right reasons.”
“As long as he understands that the French national team is different than the NBA. We have rules, we have things that we do. Sometimes we all have lunch and dinner together,” added Gobert, “It’s not everybody doing their own thing. These are two different teams.”
Gobert, 30, has been a regular for France all the way back to junior international tournaments. At the senior level, he has been on the receiving end of silver medals in the most recent Olympic tournament and also won a couple of FIBA World Cup bronze medals, plus one silver and one bronze in EuroBasket.
“But I think the main thing for us, for him, and for me is that I want to make sure that he does it from his heart. And if he does that, I think he would be an amazing addition to our team,” he continued on Embiid, “It has to come from him. You are either all in, or you’re not. You can’t just show up.”
Embiid, 28, was born in Cameroon but over the last few months became both a French and USA citizen, thus eligible to play for both countries in future FIBA tournaments.
Photo Credit: FIBA.BASKETBALL