Well, for the first time in the ongoing Showcase games, Team USA looked like mere mortals as South Sudan almost toppled them. And if it wasn’t for LeBron James taking matters into his own hands and dropping 25 points, we might have actually witnessed David defeating Goliath. While it’s hard to blame the close call on one player, many believe that Joel Embiid’s underwhelming performance was the reason Team USA struggled in London. Sure enough, the NBA World showed no mercy to the former MVP, especially after his recent dig at LeBron’s age.

Having been the leading MVP candidate until he got injured this past season and finishing with an average of 34.7 points, fans had a lot of expectations from Embiid heading into the Olympics. However, the big man has not lived up to any of them so far as he has only been able to cross the double-digit mark in two of the four showcase games. While Joel had his highest-scoring game yesterday against South Sudan with 14 points and seven rebounds, those stats do not scream MVP potential.

Moreover, everyone still remembers Joel getting fouled out in his Team USA debut against Canada a couple of weeks ago, as he got booted from the game after spending only 12 minutes on the court. What’s even more egregious is that instead of improving his performance, Embiid claimed that Team USA could fail in their pursuit of gold because of aging superstars like LeBron James.

“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. The LeBron now is not the LeBron that was a couple of years ago … 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,” the former MVP told the New York Times.

NBA World slams Joel Embiid following another disappointing performance

Proving Embiid wrong, LeBron James showed against South Sudan that age is not going to be a problem for him anytime soon. From leading his team in scoring to hitting the game-winning shot, LeBron did it all yesterday. While fans were already unhappy with Embiid’s LeBron dig, they completely lost their cool after the former MVP blew a wide-open layup in the closing seconds of the third quarter after a brilliant pass from LBJ.

Although Embiid tipped in his own rebound and beat the buzzer, fans had already made up their mind about him, writing, “This dude is a joke.”

Meanwhile, one netizen even called Embiid’s miss “intentional”, possibly hinting that he only blew the layup to increase his rebounding numbers.

Obviously, the former MVP has been accused of stat-padding in the past, and his missing an open layup despite being a seven-footer only adds fuel to those allegations.

Taking the criticism one step further, one fan even accused Embiid of trying to imitate WNBA rookie Angel Reese.

While Angel has turned into a double-double machine in such a short span, many refs have had issues with the way she gets her rebounds. Many a time, grabbing the rebounds from her own missed shots, Reese has also been accused of stat-padding in the WNBA.

Seeing Embiid continuously struggle on the court for the last four games, one fan demanded Anthony Davis take his spot in the starting lineup.

As of now, only three superstars have started in all four showcase games for Team USA, LeBron, Steph, and Embiid. While Steph and LeBron have done their part, Embiid has frequently fallen short on his end. Meanwhile, AD has dominated every time he comes off the bench. So, Kerr might have to consider replacing Embiid with Davis in the upcoming games.

And one harsh fan demanded the ultimate punishment for Embiid as he wanted the former MVP to be kicked off Team USA.

Now that might be a little too harsh considering that Embiid is still one of the top superstars in the league. More importantly, he is slowly starting to get a hold of playing by the FIBA rules as he showed with his 14-point outing against South Sudan. And hopefully, he will continue to grow his game going forward.