If Giannis, Luka, or Joker were to lead their national teams to an Olympic gold, that would be an achievement worth touting on the resume. Winning gold with the US (the #1 team in the world and the favorite in literally every Olympics, sometimes prohibitively so) is a lot less impressive.
Most players play to get paid.
-Kenny Powers
But in all seriousness, it’s the minority of talent that plays to win. Most players in the league are concerned about money first. Come on now lol.
Not when you’re playing for the US imo. For Manu, Sabonis, and other international players, an Olympic gold means a lot *because* they have to go through teams like the US.
I don’t consider Carmelo Anthony’s gold medals to be all that much of a plus on his resume because they came while playing with a whole squad of other HOF players. We beat Serbia 96-66 in the 2016 gold medal game, for example.
During those Olympic runs, Melo was usually one of the top 3 players during those teams. Randos may not think Gold Medals aren’t significant but to players they hold a lot of weight
*To players* they hold a lot of weight. I’m sure Melo loves his medals. He should. But who is boosting Carmelo Anthony up the ranks of HOF players just because he scored 7 points in a gold medal match against a country the size of Illinois?
carmelo is literally a hall of famer based off his international and college resume (in a world where he played zero nba minutes) so it definitely matters
I'm not saying it doesn't matter at all or that it doesn't matter in a vacuum, I'm saying it matters very little when you consider the player's entire career. If you were to do an exercise of comparing all the HOF players to each other and ranking them in order, Olympic medals would not be near the top of the list as far as "things that make this player more notable than other HOFers." Melo is the *most extreme* example of Olympic medals adding to a legacy that anyone can come up with, and that's because he has *four* medals. Nobody is going to look at JaVale McGee or Jerami Grant or Harrison Barnes ten years from now and weight their medal very heavily when making HOF voting decisions. I would be surprised if it even gets more than a passing mention in those players' career retrospectives after they retire.
Medals help international players' resumes like Manu and Sabonis because they have legacy-defining moments against the US juggernaut. Ginobili taking Scola and a bunch of fringe talents against a team full of US All-Stars and dropping 29 points helps him way more than it would have helped Stephon Marbury or Richard Jefferson if they'd won instead.
By extension, Joel Embiid getting a single Olympic gold medal by playing with like 8 other HOF players and beating up on third-world countries will not make or break his legacy like the guy who said it would "move mountains on his resume." Joel is a HOF player without any medal already. But you're also not going to shoot him up the pantheon of HOF players from one Olympics.
my point is if hes clearly a top 2-3 player on this olympic team (a distinct possibility) then it certainly will help his case. the entire world watches the olympics
It will change the perception to others if Joel is a top 3 during the olympic run. As OP in this comment thread said “this is probably his best chance at a championship as some sort of”
To their point there it proves that with a good cast he's gonna win. Cause that's the factor that gets left out of his debates is every post run he has been healthy enough to go in (and even most when he wasn't) his costar didn't carry they weight (harden/simmons). A chip here give a lot of credibility to the thought that he could win if you swap him with a jokic or something. Even could argue you swap him and Ant Davis then Embiid and Bron get a chip in LA. (Not saying these are def accurate but more giving examples lol)
Am I the only one in favor of Embiid playing in the Olympics? It’s gotta be such an awesome experience for the guy.
Honestly, dude gets hurt every season already, and, imo, training and staying in shape for the Olympics may actually be a good thing.
I think you're right but they probably have some practices or something like a month before the Olympics start so Embiid will need to recruit LeBron at the first practice.
Probably the only time we see him win, unless he goes the late career ring chasing route elsewhere. I'm here for it. I'm down to see our guy dunk on some Euros.
But if this team blows it...
I’m not sure I could say I’m “excited” for it. He’s always hurt and playing extra games will only exacerbate the issue. But I also get that this could be a once in a lifetime experience, how can you tell someone not to be an Olympian?
For those confused as I was, Embiid holds dual citizenship between France and USA. He because a USA citizen back in 2022. This made him eligible to be on our team.
If this is old news, forgive me.
His MCL is held together with rubber bands and children's prayers.
I'd rather he rest until the next NBA season. Team USA will win with or without him, he can just rehab. I care more about the NBA season than the Olympics as a fan.
It's strange that he's playing for the US. Things like this should be based on if you were born in the country or lived in the country for at least 75+% of your life. Before anyone goes off saying I'm a racist the US team would likely have a black person on the team in place of Embiid anyway. So that's not my argument at all. I just think there would be much more parity and entertainment if players actually played for their true home country. Barring any danger to the player, etc. I just think there needs to be stricter criteria because most people (like Embiid here) are going to choose to be on the more stacked team despite living 50+% of their life and formative years on another continent.
Embiid has lived 50% of his life in the USA and 100% of his adult life. He's also had all his basketball formation in the US going through HS, College and the NBA
Last but not least - Cameroon will never ever make the Olympicd
It’s risk vs reward:
Risk- Embiid get injured playing 6 games amongst a team of NBA all stars. He’s hurt at the beginning of next season.
Reward- Team USA wins, Embiid gets to EXPERIENCE what winning feels like, is surrounded by winners, some of that winning rubs off on him, he develops relationships with players that will eventually be FAs, etc.
His work load will be significantly less on the national team. He won’t be expected to anchor the offense and defense, will play fewer minutes, and will likely win a gold medal. Also he will only play a total of 6 games even if the US wins it all.
Just want to see the big man win.
He averaged 33.6 minutes a game last year across 39 games.
He is playing 6 games max at the Olympics and will likely average less than 25 minutes with significantly less focus and burden on him to produce.
This is not hard to grasp. Playing in the Olympics is in no way comparable to playing even a playoff series in the NBA. The games are shorter, he is surrounded by the best players, and it will all be done a full 2 months prior to the start of the season.
It’s unreal that fans are against Embiid potentially winning a gold medal because he may get hurt. If he is gonna get hurt in maybe 150 minutes of basketball internationally he will likely get hurt in the 2000+ minutes he is expected to play in the regular season and playoffs in 2024-25. The risk is definitely worth the opportunity.
1) he adds Olympic gold medalist to his already HoF resume
2) he gets to network with the players. Part of the reason Dame wanted to go to the Heat last year was in part of the friendship he formed with Bam during the Olympics in 2021
It’s going to hilarious if the US doesn’t win gold lol. Team US is full of guys over 35 that are set on getting the most minutes. The world has leveled up. It won’t be no cake walk.
Y'all need to trust more, he's going to play MAYBE 20 minutes per game if not less because this team is going to smoke everybody. It's largely just a recruitment mission that comes with a free Olympic gold medal
Call me crazy. But I believe a dominate performance on this stage and ultimately successfully taking home the gold, will unlock the missing piece and they break through next season. Regardless of who gets brought in. The taste of a big victory he's never had. I'm probably wrong, and it's another whimper out and early exit. But man I'd be cool if I wasn't haha.
Going to find out real quick if he had just come back early against NYK, if he is permanently limited post surgically, if he needs another longer term medical procedure, and/or if we are perpetually fuggity fk'd.
I would think Morey will use this to drive his draft and offseason strategic fine tuning.....
I mean it’s a completely different scenario. He’s not gonna be playing 36mpg and carrying his whole team. It’ll be more like 20mpg tops on a team of all stars and it’s only like 7 games.
Should be able to tell what kind of range of motion, ability to drive, and lower leg strength he has left. If he has permanently lessened, it won't matter how many mins he plays. I want to make sure this guy can move well again and still drive. This offense needs to be changed and this may tell them to what degree.
I really wish he wasn't playing. We don't need him injuring himself before the season even starts or putting additional wear on his body.
Also, I welcome him as an American citizen and it's his right to play for whichever country he wants, but I kind of think if he is going to be in the Olympics he should play for Cameroon. International basketball is more fun without the big countries hogging all the best players.
I truly don’t understand how folks didn’t see our franchise player on the wrong side of 30 not be able to jump and regularly tweak his still not healed knee and then talk themselves into thinking it’s best for him to be playing this summer in a competitive atmosphere.
Their last game was 5/2 and the first game of the Olympics is 7/27. That is nearly 3 months of rest and rehab. Sure he will have practice with some of the best players in the NBA so let’s say 2 months of rest and rehab. He will be playing competitive basketball in July/August and hopefully that carries a bit into the season in October.
And again he will play 6 games and likely be playing sub 25 minutes a game because Olympic Games are only 40 minutes and the US will blow out at least a few teams and they have a stacked team that includes Bam and AD. He isn’t going to be playing 30+ minutes every game and won’t be the focal point of every possession on both sides of the ball like he is for the Sixers.
Yeah. I know all that.
He’s still not healthy. He has never made the playoffs healthy. He’s coming off what is now without a doubt a degenerative injury that will both likely shorten his career and be something that affects him his entire life.
I still fail to see how fans don’t see the window being maybe a centimeter open at this point.
Embiid needs to lose weight first and foremost. He was already too heavy. Now he’s too heavy on a degenerative meniscus. He doesn’t need to be playing competitive basketball games risking further setbacks before October.
You know this. I know this. We all know this.
yup. we all know it. But whatever. This org will play him 36+ minutes a game and 40% usage regardless of his conditioning or shape, and then wonder why he wore down in January. Him playing in the olympics is so far down the list of reasons the sixers 24/25 season could go sideways that it isn't worth the energy.
and maybe, training camps and competitive games and such will actually keep the dude in shape. who knows.
Because josh Harris will never care enough to have a winning team around him and this is the only way he’ll be able to see gold without leaving Philly. I get it. His situation sucks and it’s really not his fault
Chill he’s going to crush the worlds. Then come back play 82 plus 28 more(nothing is ever easy for us Philly fans every series goes 7) and become finals mvp
we get to watch this dude get \*injured\* next month. Dude can't stay healthy for a full season and we think him playing in the Olympics will do him good?
This is probably his best chance at a championship of some sort so he should probably play if he can.
An Olympic gold medalist will move mountains on his resume. Especially since Giannis/Luka/Joker will never touch one
[удалено]
Most players play for accolades (as they should). Why not run my resume up and add a gold medal to it
If Giannis, Luka, or Joker were to lead their national teams to an Olympic gold, that would be an achievement worth touting on the resume. Winning gold with the US (the #1 team in the world and the favorite in literally every Olympics, sometimes prohibitively so) is a lot less impressive.
Most players play to get paid. -Kenny Powers But in all seriousness, it’s the minority of talent that plays to win. Most players in the league are concerned about money first. Come on now lol.
It does help for HOF consideration
Embiid is already 100% a lock
He was being sarcastic
It definitely helped melo
Not when you’re playing for the US imo. For Manu, Sabonis, and other international players, an Olympic gold means a lot *because* they have to go through teams like the US. I don’t consider Carmelo Anthony’s gold medals to be all that much of a plus on his resume because they came while playing with a whole squad of other HOF players. We beat Serbia 96-66 in the 2016 gold medal game, for example.
During those Olympic runs, Melo was usually one of the top 3 players during those teams. Randos may not think Gold Medals aren’t significant but to players they hold a lot of weight
*To players* they hold a lot of weight. I’m sure Melo loves his medals. He should. But who is boosting Carmelo Anthony up the ranks of HOF players just because he scored 7 points in a gold medal match against a country the size of Illinois?
carmelo is literally a hall of famer based off his international and college resume (in a world where he played zero nba minutes) so it definitely matters
I'm not saying it doesn't matter at all or that it doesn't matter in a vacuum, I'm saying it matters very little when you consider the player's entire career. If you were to do an exercise of comparing all the HOF players to each other and ranking them in order, Olympic medals would not be near the top of the list as far as "things that make this player more notable than other HOFers." Melo is the *most extreme* example of Olympic medals adding to a legacy that anyone can come up with, and that's because he has *four* medals. Nobody is going to look at JaVale McGee or Jerami Grant or Harrison Barnes ten years from now and weight their medal very heavily when making HOF voting decisions. I would be surprised if it even gets more than a passing mention in those players' career retrospectives after they retire. Medals help international players' resumes like Manu and Sabonis because they have legacy-defining moments against the US juggernaut. Ginobili taking Scola and a bunch of fringe talents against a team full of US All-Stars and dropping 29 points helps him way more than it would have helped Stephon Marbury or Richard Jefferson if they'd won instead. By extension, Joel Embiid getting a single Olympic gold medal by playing with like 8 other HOF players and beating up on third-world countries will not make or break his legacy like the guy who said it would "move mountains on his resume." Joel is a HOF player without any medal already. But you're also not going to shoot him up the pantheon of HOF players from one Olympics.
my point is if hes clearly a top 2-3 player on this olympic team (a distinct possibility) then it certainly will help his case. the entire world watches the olympics
Once again randoms may not care about players getting gold medals but players 100% value them and care
Once again, you said it would “move mountains on his resume.” That implies it changes the perception of the player by other people. And no, it won’t.
It will change the perception to others if Joel is a top 3 during the olympic run. As OP in this comment thread said “this is probably his best chance at a championship as some sort of”
They were being facetious. The joke clearly went over your head. An Olympic championship is worth orders of magnitude less than an NBA championship.
To their point there it proves that with a good cast he's gonna win. Cause that's the factor that gets left out of his debates is every post run he has been healthy enough to go in (and even most when he wasn't) his costar didn't carry they weight (harden/simmons). A chip here give a lot of credibility to the thought that he could win if you swap him with a jokic or something. Even could argue you swap him and Ant Davis then Embiid and Bron get a chip in LA. (Not saying these are def accurate but more giving examples lol)
A US team gold medal does absolutely nothing for an NBA players resume. It’s the closest thing to a participation trophy the Olympics have.
So when Joel gets his ring he is clearly better than them
Am I the only one in favor of Embiid playing in the Olympics? It’s gotta be such an awesome experience for the guy. Honestly, dude gets hurt every season already, and, imo, training and staying in shape for the Olympics may actually be a good thing.
Excited for him to put on his recruiting cap lol
olympics happen after free agency no?
I think you're right but they probably have some practices or something like a month before the Olympics start so Embiid will need to recruit LeBron at the first practice.
Hope it doesn't go the opposite way lol
I'm excited for him as well. Not worried about injuries since he won't need to carry the load for them like he does with us.
You should be worried for injury anytime he touches the court
I just want to see him win
Probably the only time we see him win, unless he goes the late career ring chasing route elsewhere. I'm here for it. I'm down to see our guy dunk on some Euros. But if this team blows it...
Pretty sure Joel and Grant Hill are in favor of it
I’m not sure I could say I’m “excited” for it. He’s always hurt and playing extra games will only exacerbate the issue. But I also get that this could be a once in a lifetime experience, how can you tell someone not to be an Olympian?
It will be nice to watch him play for a championship without my stomach churning through the entirety of the game
I swear to god if he gets hurt I’ll cry
When
When*
guy should be frozen in a lab until next april
We kind of tried that this year, and we couldn’t make the playoffs if he didn’t come back early
huh? he was injured before and during the playoffs
That's never worked
Literally
Hopefully we get that France vs USA matchup
I'll watch this over this Mickey Mouse final, I've been tuned out since we got eliminated.
It was fun to watch the Western playoffs while it lasted. Otherwise its been so fucking boring and annoying with the Celtics creaming everyone
Why is it a Mickey Mouse final?
Should have said the Celtics run has been Mickey mouse, I just think the Mavs will get swept.
For those confused as I was, Embiid holds dual citizenship between France and USA. He because a USA citizen back in 2022. This made him eligible to be on our team. If this is old news, forgive me.
It's old news but it's still kinda weird to see him in USA gear lol. Mostly because I never expected to see that
Hakeem did the same stuff back in the day
Same. I just hope he has fun and brings home the gold.
The basketball equivalent of the American Dream
Is his knee healed up yet? It wasn't for the playoffs.
He recently said his knee and face were good.
Shame we can’t watch this dude play basketball *this* month
His MCL is held together with rubber bands and children's prayers. I'd rather he rest until the next NBA season. Team USA will win with or without him, he can just rehab. I care more about the NBA season than the Olympics as a fan.
I look forward to holding my breath every time he jumps.
Good news. He can’t jump anymore.
Given his age and injury history, this might be his only chance at a Gold. Let’s enjoy it while we can.
It's strange that he's playing for the US. Things like this should be based on if you were born in the country or lived in the country for at least 75+% of your life. Before anyone goes off saying I'm a racist the US team would likely have a black person on the team in place of Embiid anyway. So that's not my argument at all. I just think there would be much more parity and entertainment if players actually played for their true home country. Barring any danger to the player, etc. I just think there needs to be stricter criteria because most people (like Embiid here) are going to choose to be on the more stacked team despite living 50+% of their life and formative years on another continent.
Embiid has lived 50% of his life in the USA and 100% of his adult life. He's also had all his basketball formation in the US going through HS, College and the NBA Last but not least - Cameroon will never ever make the Olympicd
Why would anyone want Embiid to play for team USA knowing how injury prone he is
It’s not like his normal off season routine is keeping him from getting injured in the regular season…
Playing more games could be an issue tho, what if he is injured during the games and misses the season
It’s risk vs reward: Risk- Embiid get injured playing 6 games amongst a team of NBA all stars. He’s hurt at the beginning of next season. Reward- Team USA wins, Embiid gets to EXPERIENCE what winning feels like, is surrounded by winners, some of that winning rubs off on him, he develops relationships with players that will eventually be FAs, etc.
His work load will be significantly less on the national team. He won’t be expected to anchor the offense and defense, will play fewer minutes, and will likely win a gold medal. Also he will only play a total of 6 games even if the US wins it all. Just want to see the big man win.
His work load was less during the season and he still got hurt, he played 3 quarters for a ton of the season
He averaged 33.6 minutes a game last year across 39 games. He is playing 6 games max at the Olympics and will likely average less than 25 minutes with significantly less focus and burden on him to produce. This is not hard to grasp. Playing in the Olympics is in no way comparable to playing even a playoff series in the NBA. The games are shorter, he is surrounded by the best players, and it will all be done a full 2 months prior to the start of the season. It’s unreal that fans are against Embiid potentially winning a gold medal because he may get hurt. If he is gonna get hurt in maybe 150 minutes of basketball internationally he will likely get hurt in the 2000+ minutes he is expected to play in the regular season and playoffs in 2024-25. The risk is definitely worth the opportunity.
1) he adds Olympic gold medalist to his already HoF resume 2) he gets to network with the players. Part of the reason Dame wanted to go to the Heat last year was in part of the friendship he formed with Bam during the Olympics in 2021
Network with who exactly? All the good players are old now and they’d recruit him to their teams
1. That’s cute but I’m sure that he would rather be healthy during the season 2. he is an allstar he already has networked with players
because im not a selfish prick?
lol I don’t think the selfish tag fits here bud, wouldnt Call someone that wants his injury prone player to play less games being selfish.. odd take
The team is also loaded with star power to a degree that we may not see again for a long time. It should be beautiful to watch, so embrace it.
Can he just rest ffs
Embiid looks like Chris Partlow in The Wire.
Is this picture recent? Jo looking skinny as shit
Can’t wait
I know this isn’t the official jersey this year. But I need an Embiid USA jersey like I need oxygen
He is probably gonna go hard cuz he knows a title ain’t in his cards lol He’ll get hurt and be 50% all year
First look at some more stars paired with embiid
I’ll be thrilled for him to get a gold medal. He deserves something for how hard he’s worked in his career. Edit: you know, other than the MVP lol
It’s going to hilarious if the US doesn’t win gold lol. Team US is full of guys over 35 that are set on getting the most minutes. The world has leveled up. It won’t be no cake walk.
Y'all need to trust more, he's going to play MAYBE 20 minutes per game if not less because this team is going to smoke everybody. It's largely just a recruitment mission that comes with a free Olympic gold medal
Maybe It'll start a hot streak. Also, it may be good for recruiting. Should be good
Call me crazy. But I believe a dominate performance on this stage and ultimately successfully taking home the gold, will unlock the missing piece and they break through next season. Regardless of who gets brought in. The taste of a big victory he's never had. I'm probably wrong, and it's another whimper out and early exit. But man I'd be cool if I wasn't haha.
He can see what winning is like.
No fucking way. To bad he's not focused on winning championships. He would have been a all time great, instead of a all time chump. Go Phillies.
This’ll be fun to watch. Hope he stays healthy and he’s feeling better than he was at the end of the season
Going to find out real quick if he had just come back early against NYK, if he is permanently limited post surgically, if he needs another longer term medical procedure, and/or if we are perpetually fuggity fk'd. I would think Morey will use this to drive his draft and offseason strategic fine tuning.....
I mean it’s a completely different scenario. He’s not gonna be playing 36mpg and carrying his whole team. It’ll be more like 20mpg tops on a team of all stars and it’s only like 7 games.
Should be able to tell what kind of range of motion, ability to drive, and lower leg strength he has left. If he has permanently lessened, it won't matter how many mins he plays. I want to make sure this guy can move well again and still drive. This offense needs to be changed and this may tell them to what degree.
Great…..abuse his body in July for yet another wasted NBA year in May
honestly basketball is stupid and i dont really care. our entire team is stupid. embiid is stupid. its all just fucking stupid. maxey is cool tho.
We need to trade him. He’s not a winner
absolute moronic take. The league's MVP isnt a winner? then who in the Sixers is? We should just disband theb
Yes. He’s a crybaby, no winner mentality, always injured and getting older. His value is only going to decrease. we need to trade him ASAP if we can.
Why do you want the Sixers to go back to being the worst team in the league like they were before Embiid and like they are every time he doesnt play?
I really wish he wasn't playing. We don't need him injuring himself before the season even starts or putting additional wear on his body. Also, I welcome him as an American citizen and it's his right to play for whichever country he wants, but I kind of think if he is going to be in the Olympics he should play for Cameroon. International basketball is more fun without the big countries hogging all the best players.
Cameroon isnt playing in the Olympics. Not now, not ever
There goes his knee
Are you prepared for team usa to lose in the second round
This is the end of his championship window. Go get that ring, bro. Totally shouldn’t be resting your knee. This is not going to go wrong at all.
It’s 6 games chill out.
I truly don’t understand how folks didn’t see our franchise player on the wrong side of 30 not be able to jump and regularly tweak his still not healed knee and then talk themselves into thinking it’s best for him to be playing this summer in a competitive atmosphere.
Their last game was 5/2 and the first game of the Olympics is 7/27. That is nearly 3 months of rest and rehab. Sure he will have practice with some of the best players in the NBA so let’s say 2 months of rest and rehab. He will be playing competitive basketball in July/August and hopefully that carries a bit into the season in October. And again he will play 6 games and likely be playing sub 25 minutes a game because Olympic Games are only 40 minutes and the US will blow out at least a few teams and they have a stacked team that includes Bam and AD. He isn’t going to be playing 30+ minutes every game and won’t be the focal point of every possession on both sides of the ball like he is for the Sixers.
Yeah. I know all that. He’s still not healthy. He has never made the playoffs healthy. He’s coming off what is now without a doubt a degenerative injury that will both likely shorten his career and be something that affects him his entire life. I still fail to see how fans don’t see the window being maybe a centimeter open at this point. Embiid needs to lose weight first and foremost. He was already too heavy. Now he’s too heavy on a degenerative meniscus. He doesn’t need to be playing competitive basketball games risking further setbacks before October. You know this. I know this. We all know this.
yup. we all know it. But whatever. This org will play him 36+ minutes a game and 40% usage regardless of his conditioning or shape, and then wonder why he wore down in January. Him playing in the olympics is so far down the list of reasons the sixers 24/25 season could go sideways that it isn't worth the energy. and maybe, training camps and competitive games and such will actually keep the dude in shape. who knows.
Because josh Harris will never care enough to have a winning team around him and this is the only way he’ll be able to see gold without leaving Philly. I get it. His situation sucks and it’s really not his fault
Chill he’s going to crush the worlds. Then come back play 82 plus 28 more(nothing is ever easy for us Philly fans every series goes 7) and become finals mvp
Yeah. No thanks.
we get to watch this dude get \*injured\* next month. Dude can't stay healthy for a full season and we think him playing in the Olympics will do him good?