Former Knicks first-round pick explains why Olympics decision made him 'hate' Joel Embiid

Former New York Knicks first-round pick and French national team member Frederic Weis explained on Sunday why a recent decision by Joel Embiid made him "hate" the reigning MVP.

The animosity stems from Embiid's choice to represent the United States in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, rather than France.

The seven-time All-Star was born and raised in Cameroon before moving to the U.S. in high school and playing one season at the University of Kansas. Embiid has spent his entire NBA career with the Philadelphia 76ers since being selected third overall in the 2014 NBA Draft.

He has never taken part in international competitions, let alone the Olympics.

"I consider this boy a great player as much as he is a dirty guy. I hate him for the things that he did," Weis said on his radio show at the French station RMC of Embiid, per Mark Puleo of The Athletic. "I think he doesn’t have any respect for France and also for all the people who are asking for a French passport and don’t get it. And under the pretext that he is a great athlete, he got it. I find it scandalous, I find it embarrassing. I don’t care about his excuses, cause they are his words, and his words mean nothing."

Though Embiid has family in France, he's never lived in the country, according to Puleo's report. He became a French citizen in 2022.

The 30-year-old mentioned Cameroon as his first choice for international play during a 2018 interview with the French newspaper L'Equipe, but also named France and the U.S. as possibilities.

According to Puleo's report, Embiid has "insisted that he never told Team France anything different from that newspaper quote." 

Puleo adds, however, that French men's team general manager Boris Diaw told The Athletic in 2023 that Embiid told him he wanted to play for France.

"Joel came to us and said that he wanted to play international basketball, he said he wanted to win, and he said he wanted to play for France and he wanted to win with France,” Diaw said. “So we listened to him."

"I would take away from him the French nationality and I would ban him from entering France. You will not play in the Olympics," Weis added jokingly. "You will come to the airport with Team USA and we will say, ‘You don’t have the right to enter the territory, go to your home. You are Cameroonian, you are American, you are not French, go away."

According to Puleo, a spokesman for the Sixers superstar said that the big man never asked for citizenship but was granted a passport in 2022 anyway.

Though Weis was selected 15th overall by the Knicks in 1999, he never played in an NBA game. He was also on the wrong end of the most famous poster dunk in U.S. men's national team history during the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney when the Americans defeated the French in the championship game.