Joel Embiid may have played his college basketball on American soil, and he may be planning out how to make a career out of playing in the NBA, but that doesn’t mean that Embiid is American.
He’s Cameroonian, and he grew up as a fan of the soccer club Real Madrid.
I bring this up because last night, as the USA were in the midst of putting the finishing touches on gracing Portugal with the gift of a draw in World Cup group play, Embiid tweeted out his support for Cristiano Ronaldo, the banged-up Portuguese superstar that delivered a sparkling cross to the head of Silvestre Vilera in the 95th minute:Ronaldo my boy #halamadrid
— Joel-Hans Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) June 22, 2014As you might imagine, the backlash from American basketball fans still stinging from that last-second goal was vitriolic (Note: this is only the PG-13 stuff):
@JoelEmbiid #gregoden
— charles calloway (@c3calloway) June 22, 2014“@JoelEmbiid: Ronaldo my boy #halamadrid” praying the Sixers pass on this guy.
— Sean Donnelly (@_SeanDonnelly) June 22, 2014And then we get to this guy, who spent the entirety of Sunday night ripping Embiid on twitter. This was the cleanest tweet he sent:
@JoelEmbiid if it wasn’t for the USA you’d still be living in a third world country, show some respect.
— Rich Homie John (@Johnsiebels) June 23, 2014There was a lot of blowback for what he had to say, which resulted in one of the most ironic tweets I’ve ever come across:
Wow thr backlash you get on twitter from people you don’t know is mind blowing, guess I’m twitter famous finally?
— Rich Homie John (@Johnsiebels) June 23, 2014