Hill spoke to Embiid about playing for Team USA at 2024 Olympics

USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill revealed he met with 2023 MVP Joel Embiid about potentially representing the Americans at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

“Yes. I’ve talked to him,” Hill said Wednesday on SiriusXM NBA Radio.

“He has options. He’s a great player. He’s also somebody that we’ve talked to about next summer. We’ll see how that plays out. I know he just got married, so I want to congratulate him on that.”

The Cameroon-born 7-footer holds both American and French citizenship. The French basketball federation contacted Embiid in hopes of recruiting him to play for Les Bleus, but the 29-year-old has yet to pledge his international allegiance to either nation.

Under FIBA regulations, Embiid has to declare his decision to the governing body before he can become eligible for selection for any international tournament. If he sides with the U.S., the Philadelphia 76ers center would likely be in the mix for the gold medal in Paris while playing with several of the NBA’s biggest stars.

However, the French could also boast one of the strongest teams at next year’s competition, with San Antonio Spurs prodigy Victor Wembanyama expected to suit up alongside notable teammates such as Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier, and Nicolas Batum.

After arriving in the U.S. from Cameroon as a 16-year-old, Embiid went to two high schools in Florida before enrolling at Kansas, where he played his lone collegiate season in 2013-14 before going third overall in the 2014 NBA Draft. His son Arthur was born in the U.S. in 2020.

Hill added that the French have been one of the Americans’ strongest opposition at recent competitions, even before the possible addition of a six-time NBA All-Star in Embiid.

“It’s tough. France is a team that’s probably been our toughest opponent, at least in the last quad,” he said. “They beat us in the opening game in the Olympics in ’21, and then in a very hard-fought win, we beat them in the gold-medal game. And then you think about Wembanyama and the potential of others, it’s not easy.”

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