- Victor Wembanyama has once again confirmed he will play for France at the Paris Olympics
- Wembanyama says their only goal is to win the gold
- The teenager says France’s performance at the World Cup was disappointing
The 2024 Olympics will be held in Paris, France, and the French national team can count on Victor Wembanyama to suit up for them. The 19-year-old confirmed that he will take part in the Olympics, and he has just one goal in mind.
“I will be present at the Olympics, and there is no other goal than gold. … The World Cup was very disappointing.”
It would be a huge boost for France to have Wembanyama, who was just selected with the first pick of the 2023 NBA Draft, among their ranks. The teenager has played for his country in the past but never in a major tournament.
Wembanyama did not play for France at the 2023 FIBA World Cup as he felt it would not be prudent health-wise to take part, with his rookie season in the NBA on the horizon. Prior to that, he had missed EuroBasket 2022 due to injury. While the French did just fine at the EuroBasket without him, winning the silver medal, they could have used him at the World Cup.
France Had A Dismal World Cup
Despite Wembanyama’s absence, France entered the World Cup as one of the favorites. They were the runner-ups at the Tokyo Olympics and had won the bronze medal in each of the last two World Cups as well.
2023, though, turned out to be a nightmare. France lost two of their three games in the first round, which meant they failed to even advance to the second round. It was a disaster, and Nicolas Batum was scared to go home after this dismal French showing at the World Cup.
He was ashamed to wear the jersey and admitted they let a lot of people down. France did manage to win their two classification round games to end the tournament in 17th place, but that was no consolation.
Can France With Victor Wembanyama Challenge Team USA?
LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry will reportedly play for Team USA at the Olympics, and you’d expect a host of stars to join them. It makes them the clear favorite to win the gold yet again, but can France potentially stop them?
The French had beaten Team USA in the preliminary round of the Tokyo Olympics and had given them a run for their money in the gold medal game as well, narrowly losing by an 87-82 scoreline.
The U.S. had some big names like Durant, Devin Booker, and Jayson Tatum at those Olympics, but there will be even more of them this time around. Would the addition of Wembanyama be enough to make up for that? I really don’t think so, but there is one individual who can perhaps give France a chance, Joel Embiid.
At this point, Embiid is eligible to represent France as well as the U.S. He hasn’t made a decision yet, though, on who he’d want to play for, and we don’t even know whether the Philadelphia 76ers big man wants to take part in the Olympics itself.
If he does take part with France, I think they could challenge Team USA. Embiid gives them the offensive firepower that they have lacked at times and is capable of going toe-to-toe with basically anybody. I’d still have the U.S. as the favorite, but France could make things quite interesting if they have Embiid.
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