Philadelphia 76ers: Joel Embiid is doing good at the NBA Africa game
On a trip back to his native continent to play in the 2018 NBA Africa game, Joel Embiid is doing good work both on and off the court.
Has there been a week this summer where Joel Embiid‘s name hasn’t been in the news?
From beefing with 2018 first overall pick DeAndre Ayton, to his feverish attempts to convince LeBron James to forgo the bright lights of Hollywood to take his talents to the City of Brotherly Love and finally #CompleteTheProcess, everyone’s favorite Philadelphia 76ers big man (sorry Nerlens Noel) has had a busy summer to say the least.
And on August 4th, he may have had his best day yet.
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Finally returning to his home continent for the first time since he was drafted back in 2014, Embiid took center stage at the NBA’s 2018 Africa game as a team captain and lit up the court under the international spotlight.
Playing alongside a slew of other prominent NBA players like Orlando Magic guard Evan Fournier, Portland Trail Blazers‘ forward Al-Farouq Aminu, and former teammate Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Embiid lead all players with 24 points in 24 minutes while also hauling in a team-high eight rebounds.
While the performance obviously wasn’t enough to vault the team to a win, as Team World ultimately pulled out the W 96-92 thanks to choice performances by Danilo Gallinari, Harrison Barnes, and Embiid’s archrival Hassan Whiteside, for Embiid and the rest of the players involved, this game was about far more than just basketball.
For a player like Embiid, who was discovered by Cameroonian forward Luc Mbah a Moute at the age of 16, this was an opportunity to pay things forward and help to elevate international basketball to new heights.
Next. Ben Simmons is not going to LA anytime soon. dark
From taking on a quartet of youngsters in a four-on-one scoring challenge for $15,000 to reportedly building houses alongside NBA all-time great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in South Africa before the game, Embiid looked like a perfect ambassador for the NBA and couldn’t have made the City of Brotherly Love prouder both on and off the court.