Report: Team USA basketball expresses interest in Joel Embiid joining them
Team USA basketball has expressed interest in recruiting Philadelphia 76ers superstar center Joel Embiid to their roster, according to Marc Stein. It’s not a surprise to anyone, but he’d make an excellent addition to Team USA’s roster, as the former Kansas Jayhawk played like one of the best players on the planet during the 2021-2022 NBA season. France has also continued to recruit Embiid for their international team.
Born in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the 28-year old could make either move based on FIBA rules on player nationality changes. It will be fascinating to see which team he ends up playing for in the Olympics in the future.
Embiid was one of the most dominant players in the league and played like the MVP for much of the 2021-2022 season. While he’s dealt with several brutal injuries throughout his career, he’s shown over the years that when healthy, he’s an unstoppable force on the basketball court.
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Embiid brought his special stuff to the floor when his team needed him the most in the playoff’s this year. In Game 3 of the 2022 NBA Playoffs against the Toronto Raptors, he drilled an epic three-point dagger for the ages.
Embiid delivered the heroics when his team needed him the most
The game-winning shot was the first of Embiid’s career thus far. He missed a chance to win the game at the end of regulation, but when given that opportunity again in overtime, he did not disappoint. Embiid delivered a stone-cold dagger for the ages–a turnaround three-point shot that touched nothing but nylon as it went through the hoop.
The fade away three-pointer put the 76ers ahead 104-101 with 0.8 remaining. The Raptors would get one final shot on the other end, but it missed. The game-winner gave the 76ers a commanding 3-0 advantage in the series.
Hitting shots like that is what MVPs are supposed to do and Joel Embiid played like the MVP of the NBA for nearly the entire 2021-2022 season. He ended up finishing second in the MVP voting to Denver’s Nikola Jokic.
There simply was not much the Raptors could have done during Embiid’s epic game-winning dagger. Their defenders were scrambling to cover him well after the catch. Standing at 7-feet, 280 pounds, it’s a near impossible matchup when a player that tall can nail a game-winning shot from that deep. The stroke was a near perfect shot-it splashed through the net touching nothing but nylon.
Embiid poured in 33 points and corralled 13 rebounds for his team in the 104-101 victory.
Last year, the seven-footer stuffed the stat sheet with 30.6 points per game, 11.7 rebounds per game, and 4.2 assists per game last year–numbers that are simply hard to fathom for a player his size.