Philadelphia 76ers’ Joel Embiid makes shocking comment about Team USA

Joel Embiid is struggling to perform on the court in the 2024 Paris Olympics thus far, but a recent comment is making things far worse.

The Philadelphia 76ers star recently spoke with The New York Times, where he discussed Team USA’s chances of bringing home the gold medal.

“You look at the talent that the U.S. has, but there’s equal talent on other teams,” Embiid told The New York Times 's David Marchese . “And the talent that’s on the U.S. team, you also got to understand most of those guys are older. The LeBron now is not the LeBron that was a couple of years ago. So it’s a big difference. Everybody would also tell you, and you can see for yourself, the athletic LeBron, dominant that he was a couple of years ago, is not the same that he is now. I think people get fooled by the names on paper. But those names have been built throughout their career, and now they’re older. They’re not what they used to be.”

There’s nothing wrong with being realistic with their competition, but it seems odd to call out James by name. The Los Angeles Lakers star along with the USA’s other established talent is yet to show signs of truly slowing down. This is a major reason why they’re viewed as the favorites to walk away with gold, their proven winners.