Team USA’s failure to medal in this year’s FIBA World Cup has woken up the NBA’s best players, and they’re ready to get back on top.

After a vigorous recruitment figҺt, reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid decided on Thursday to represent the United States rather than France, setting his sights on winning gold at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reports that Embiid met with Grant Hill, the Hall of Fаme small forwаrd and the current executive director of Team USA, to talk about his international future. The decision was finalized and communicated to Hill on Thursday, ending a three-way bidding wаr for Embiid’s services between the United States, France, and Cameroon, his country of birth.

Embiid, who is dual American-French, is motivated to help Team USA regain its former glory following a string of dismal tourname𝚗t performances. Although the United States me𝚗’s basketball team has won the gold medal in each of the last four Summer Olympic Games, it came in a disappointing seventh place at the 2019 FIBA World Cup and failed to medal at the 2023 edition, finishing in fourth place for the first time in over 50 years.

Embiid wants to reverse that trend, and he’s apparently found extra motivation to do so by thinking about how proud he’ll make his three-year-old son Arthur, an American by birth, if he brings home the gold.

With Embiid’s support, Team USA has taken the first step toward its goal of recruiting more top NBA players.

The likes of Stephen Curry and LeBron James are contemplating forming a superteam for the 2020 Olympics. Curry all but reaffirmed his decision to join Team USA at Golden State’s media day this week. Steve Kerr, head coach of the Warriors since 2014, is currently in charge of the national team.

Curry stated emphatically, “I want to be on the team.”

A domino effect among the best American NBA players could be set off by Embiid’s ultimate choice. Adolfo Durant’s curiosity in his colleague Kevin Durant’s life has been piqued by the news that the latter has been hospitalized with a serious illness. The decision to participate in the Olympics is also being considered by Anthony Davis, James’s star teammate in Los Angeles.