Joel Embiid Dubs Gilbert Arenas’ Comments About South Sudan ‘Disappointing’ and ‘Unfortunate’

Team USA escaped narrowly against the shifty South Sudan team in the latest pre-Olympic exhibition game. The stacked American squad faced a ton of criticism for their lapses in the 1-point win against an African nation barely on the basketball map. Joel Embiid scored 14 points in the contest on 5/6 shooting from the floor but was still on the critics’ radar for a few mistakes. However, Gilbert Arenas may have taken things a bit far with his comments, which prompted a stern response from Embiid.

The three-time All-Star accused Embiid of underperforming to help out his African “cousins”. Embiid was born in Cameroon, which is a country in Africa. Arenas insinuated that the Philadelphia 76ers star was willing to hurt Team USA to help the athletes of his continent.

Arenas may have been joking but his comments haven’t been received well in the hoops community. He was accused of being both xenophobic and racist for his remarks.

Embiid responded to Arenas’ comments in a stern but composed way. He touched upon his Cameroonian roots while crediting the African basketball scene for enabling his ascent to the NBA. After USA’s 92-88 win against Germany, Embiid told reporters, 

“I don’t condone it. I’m African, first and foremost. I might be playing for Team USA but I’m Cameroonian first and foremost… If it [the comments] 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 that I am in, still have a lot of impact where I am from the continent of Africa and that’s never gonna stop, so I gotta say that is real unfortunate especially in the world we live in,” he added.

However, Embiid admitted that he is not fully aware of what Arenas had said as he has not seen the video yet. But he was surely disappointed after learning the gist of it.

Arenas calling out South Sudan as a country with meagre resources rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. He went a little overboard with his analogies as he referred to African tribes in a derogatory manner.

Arenas jibed, “We got the males almost lost to some Africans… and the King (LeBron) had to save us. I know that LeBron haters are mad. We almost lost to the Ahi Ahi tribe. This is crazy.”

Later on, he mocked the impoverished country of South Sudan for availing free-of-cost shoes from the USA. He also ridiculed them for hooping on “peach baskets”, further making fun of their poverty.

South Sudan gained independence just 13 years ago after a vicious civil war cycle. But even after independence, the country has continued to be ravaged by warfare. Therefore, many believed that Arenas made light of the struggles faced by South Sudanese people while also taking shots at the African continent as a whole.

Fans expect better from someone who is a 50-year-old NBA commentator and was once considered as one of the top talents in the NBA.