USA Today via Reuters

The Avengers have assembled! Team USA will head to the 2024 Paris Olympics with a point to prove that they indeed are the world champions. What do they have to avenge? Is the loss to Germany in the 2023 FIBA Championship not an incentive enough? It should be. Heck, it must be. But in Joel Embiid‘s mind, that is a bit too much of an expectation.

At the focal point of his doubt is LeBron James. But is there really anything to doubt about the phenom of the game? According to Embiid, there is. It’s evident that the Lakers’ big dog is not what he used to be. While he is still LeBron “King” James, has everyone read too much into his successful past rather than his current performance? Embiid has just the answer to that.

In a recent interview with the NY Times, Embiid opened up about the different layers of the Dream Team 2.0 narrative surrounding Team USA. For him, there is a creeping doubt about the legitimacy of their claim as they are primarily a group of veterans with a deceiving perception of their capabilities. When discussing the talent on the team, Embiid said, “You look at the talent that the U.S. has, but there’s equal talent on other teams. And the talent that’s on the U.S. team, you also got to understand most of those guys are older,” he stated in the interview with David Marchese. “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.”

via Getty

The same can be said about Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. At 36 and 35 respectively, both are essentially on their final run with Team USA at the Olympics. The rest of the roster consists of younger talents, but all eyes and the weight of expectations will primarily be on the veteran shoulders of this trio. 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,” Joel Embiid concluded. With the team in London for the final two exhibition games before flying off to the Olympics, Embiid’s words are far from what everyone wanted to hear. This casts major doubt in the minds of fans who have sky-high expectations for the team and can ignite further calls for Embiid’s removal from the starting five.

Joel Embiid under fire after recent performances in Team USA colors

Embiid has already made himself public enemy number one in the eyes of the French populace. His unceremonious ditching of France for Team USA will have consequences and the Sixers C already is well aware of it. But he is not afraid. He made a stand and will see it through regardless of the deafening noises he’d have to endure in Lille. But the rising concern for him is now the growing discontent about his game. In the 3 exhibition games, Embiid has started all of them but his performances drew criticism after criticism.

“They should send Embiid’s a** back to Philadelphia and get ready for the damn season… He shouldn’t be playing, man. Not a good fit. Whatever the reasons are, whatever the case, he should not be playin’,” former NBA star Kenyon Martin said during a former NBA star Kenyon Martin. The same sentiment was echoed by Colin Cowherd during a recent episode of The Herd. Despite Embiid’s poor form, Steve Kerr is keeping his faith in the former NBA MVP. “Yeah, I like those three guys in the starting lineup. We’ve been looking at other guys around them and we obviously do have great options, but I like those three guys together,” Kerr said during a recent interview. Nonetheless, given Kerr’s history of rotations, the next two games can be a deciding factor if the HC decides to demote Embiid to the bench. If not, expect boos from both home and away support waiting for Embiid in France.