President of French basketball: I'm sorry that we spent so much time and energy on a Joel Embiid file that shouldn't have been opened

Embiid had previously expressed his interest in playing for the French national team, so much so that it was thought the 76ers player could already be available to coach Vincent Collet for EuroBasket 2022. However, the Cameroon native, partly due to some physical troubles, chose to sit out last offseason, postponing any possible talk until the following summer. It was precisely his interest in playing for the French national team that had prompted the top leadership of the federation to get him a passport, as confirmed by the president of the French federation himself, Jean-Pierre Siutat, at a recent press conference. “We met Joel Embiid together with Boris Diaw in March of 2022,” the president of the French basketball federation clarified. “But we didn’t ask for that meeting. He had shown interest in playing for France, and we helped him get French citizenship upon his request. But we were never demanding of him, I’m just sorry that we have spent so much time and energy on a file that should never have been opened,” Siutat added.
Source: Orazio Cauchi @ BasketNews