Joel Embiid caught a stray from Gilbert Arenas when the former NBA All-Star went on a wildly racist rant against the South Sudan basketball team. While Arenas was trying to joke to show how bad the USA losing to them was, it was a senseless monologue where he even mocked Embiid. The Team USA center has shared his reaction to the wild comments.
“I don’t condone it. I’m African first and foremost. I might be playing for Team USA, but I’m Cameroonian… I don’t know exactly what he said, so I can’t comment, but if it was that negative, it’s just disappointing because you see what African basketball has done for us to be in this position to be able to make some sort of impact.”
“Even the position I’m in, I still have a lot of impact where I’m from. That’s never going to stop. Like I said, it’s really unfortunate especially in the world we live in now, so much negativity.”
I asked @usabasketball’s Cameroon-born 🇨🇲 star Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) about Gilbert Arena’s (@GilsArenaShow) recent disgusting and racist comments about Africans and African basketball players… @FECABASKET @FIBA @SSBFed pic.twitter.com/aBRZfXnxTi
— Δ¥Ω™ (@iam_Ayo) July 22, 2024
Arenas comments came on a recent episode of his podcast, making multiple racist remarks such as referring to the South Sudanese players as members of the ‘Ahi Ahi’ tribe, alleging Joel Embiid intentionally was trying to throw the game, saying there are no shoes in South Sudan, and finally saying that they play basketball in the first on peach baskets.
“The males almost lost to some Africans. We almost lost and the King had to save us. I know the LeBron haters are mad. We almost lost to the ‘Ahi Ahi’ tribe, this is crazy. Man, Embiid over there goddamn throwing the game because he’s throwing the game for his cousins and shit. We’re not supposed to be losing to them. Come on man! Cool runnings? We’re not supposed to lose to some Cool Runnings team. They don’t even have shoes! They get shoes from America, we have to ship them shoes. We’re losing to people who are shooting on peach baskets, in dirt, no shoes.”
This sort of generalization had held African basketball back for years, even though the current crop of African talent in the NBA keeps getting stronger and stronger. The league has taken an active role in building up African basketball, with the Draft story of Ulrich Chomche showing how the league has opened up opportunities for African prospects.
Arenas has a problematic history of making such comments against foreign players in general, having made xenophobic comments about players like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic in the past as well.
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