Vilified by French, Joel Embiid expects fun Olympic hoops final - ESPN

PARIS — The crowds for France's upset victories over Canada and Germany this week at Bercy Arena on the banks of the Seine in the French capital have been electric this week. And Saturday's gold medal game against Team USA is expected to bring a new level of energy both because of the opponent and their villain.

Joel Embiid has played the role perfectly and, while he's mostly been willing to try to revel in the situation and even go back at fans, he said Friday he doesn't get why there's such venom aimed his way but it won't change his attitude.

«Frankly, I don't understand why I've gotten a lot of criticism from the crowd,» Embiid said. «They're going to boo me. I'm going to go back at them and tell them to 'Suck it.' And so it's going to be fun.»

The French are angry with Embiid because he asked for and received French citizenship in 2022 and the assumption clearly was it was so he could play in these Games for France. Whatever words were spoken between French basketball and government officials including French president Emmanuel Macron, Embiid never felt he'd made a promise.

Embiid, who has discussed this many times this summer but has not led to any thawing with the French fans, has said when he talked to Macron he discussed how the relationship between France and African nations including Cameroon is «not good.»

He is perturbed at this point, he said, because he thinks it should be easy to understand why he chose the U.S., where he has lived since he was 16 and where he got citizenship in 2023. And because many of Embiid's current USA Basketball teammates recruited him, making it known they wanted him to play a key role.

«Having lived half of my life in the U.S. and the other half in my country, Cameroon, it just