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Nets

DENVER (AP) &mdash; Sorry, Giannis, the NBA wanted back that rebound. Your fourth triple-double of the season, too.
Some might say nice try, others have an issue with what is known as stat padding.
When Milwaukee MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo tried to orchestrate his 10th rebound Sunday night in the final seconds of the Bucks&rsquo; win against Washington, it sent the world of social media into overdrive.
Along with it, dredged up conversations about the touchy topic of stat padding, which insinuates that someone, whether it be on the basketball court or even in the world of online video games, compiles results oblivious to what&rsquo;s going on around them.
A rebound shy of the triple-double mark, Antetokounmpo was running out the clock when he stopped near the basket. He hesitated for a moment before lightly tossing the ball at the bottom of the rim and grabbing it for what appeared to be his 10th board.
Even the announcer was like, &ldquo;Does that count?&rdquo;
It did &mdash; until it didn&rsquo;t. On Monday, and following a review by the league, his official line read: 23 points, 13 assists and nine boards.
While wiping away Antetokounmpo&rsquo;s last rebound was probably an easy call for the league, it sometimes can be a fine line between padding one&rsquo;s stats and just playing the game hard. Russell Westbrook no doubt heard the innuendos when he was a triple-double machine. Two-time reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic recently heard aspersions, too.
Antetokounmpo&rsquo;s rebound was on the blatant side (his name got added to a Wikipedia entry on &ldquo;stat padding &rdquo;).
&ldquo;I just try to play the game smart and kind of stole one,&rdquo; Antetokounmpo said in a postgame interview following a 117-111 win over Washington.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone doesn&rsquo;t believe Jokic would ever try to steal one. Still, Jokic heard the noise directed his way after recording his 100th career triple-double on Feb. 28. The Denver big man sarcastically addressed comments made by ESPN NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins, who intimated Jokic was guilty of stat padding.
&ldquo;I mean, when you&rsquo;re stat padding it&rsquo;s easy, you know,&rdquo; Jokic told the Nuggets&rsquo; TV network Altitude Sports of notching the milestone.
Asked if he heard the chatter, Jokic amusingly responded: &ldquo;Yes, of course. I mean, it&rsquo;s true.&rdquo;
Concerning the late-game actions of Antetokounmpo, Perkins commented on Twitter: &ldquo;Every player has padded their stats at some point during their career.&rdquo;
Players in triple-double territory do often know when they&rsquo;re closing in on the usually impressive stat line. Some even know exactly what&rsquo;s required. They know when they need one rebound or one assist, and so do their teammates. They almost always defer in those moments for the benefit of someone else&rsquo;s stats.
Teams get stat sheets delivered in every time-out. Scoreboards in the the arenas show every number imaginable. Everybody knows the deal in those moments.
There have been memorable, and strange, examples of the lengths players will go to get there. Cleveland&rsquo;s Ricky Davis shot at the wrong basket in 2003 to try and get the one rebound he needed; it wasn&rsquo;t awarded by the stat crew and Utah was highly annoyed at Davis&rsquo; antics with 6 seconds left in what was a 25-point game.
&ldquo;He was trying to embarrass somebody. ... I&rsquo;d have knocked him on his&rdquo; butt, the late Jerry Sloan, then the Utah coach, said that night.
When the obvious doesn&rsquo;t happen, stat padding tends to become hilarious.
Take the game in 2017, when Dwyane Wade was with the Chicago Bulls and needed one rebound for a triple-double. Kay Felder took the game&rsquo;s final shot for Cleveland, it missed and the ball was magically coming right to where Wade was standing with 1 second remaining &mdash; that is, until Bulls teammate Cristiano Felicio knocked the ball away.
Wade fell back in disbelief, then gave Felicio a look as if to ask, &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
&ldquo;My teammate didn&rsquo;t want me to be great,&rdquo; Wade said that night, smiling, though mildly bothered.
Wade did just fine without that triple-double; he&rsquo;s almost certainly going into the Basketball Hall of Fame later this year. Andray Blatche, however, is not going to be enshrined in Springfield. He never got a triple-double. He almost did, once.
April 4, 2010, was the night of Blatche infamy. He finished with 20 points, 13 assists and nine rebounds for Washington, and thought he had rebound No. 10 with 22.1 seconds left. Small complication: He fouled New Jersey&rsquo;s Brook Lopez on the play, and didn&rsquo;t have another chance to get the board he needed.
In the case of Jokic, Malone doesn&rsquo;t believe his center would ever chase individual glory &mdash; though the Nuggets&rsquo; coach has a theory why someone might.
&ldquo;Maybe they&rsquo;re just tired of this player, non-athletic player from Sombor, Serbia, continuing to kick everybody&rsquo;s&rdquo; butt, Malone told reporters after a recent practice. &ldquo;Maybe people have a hard time with that. I don&rsquo;t know. But for (Jokic) to say that, &lsquo;Yeah, you know what, I&rsquo;m padding my stats.&rsquo; Yeah, it probably signals that maybe something touched a nerve.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not doing anything to pump his own numbers up,&rdquo; Malone added. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just not in his nature. It&rsquo;s silly to think otherwise.&rdquo;

it sometimes can be a fine line between padding one’s stats and just playing the game hard.

NBA denies Giannis fourth triple-double, stirs talks about stat padding

In the 2020 Summer Olympics, which took place in 2021 due to COVID, France matched up with Team USA in the men&rsquo;s basketball gold-medal game for the third time.
The first gold-medal meeting between the two nations took place was in 1948, with France <a href="https://www.usab.com/history/national-team-mens/games-of-the-xivth-olympiad-1948.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">losing 65-21 in that final</a>.
Despite having been historically good since then, it took another 52 years for the Frenchmen to return to that stage for a second time; unfortunately, Team USA awaited again. The game was much closer in 2000 than in 1948, but the Americans &mdash; led by Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, Alonzo Mourning and Ray Allen among others &mdash; outlasted Antoine Rigaudeau, Laurent Sciarra, Frederic Weis and France, 85-75.
(No, that wasn&rsquo;t the game Carter <a href="https://youtu.be/WihbbVEmppI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dunked on Weis</a>; that was earlier in The Games.)
And in last year&rsquo;s gold-medal game, in the countries' third meeting on that stage, France <a href="https://www.espn.com/mens-olympics-basketball/boxscore/_/gameId/401347899" target="_blank" rel="noopener">got even closer</a>.
France's best Olympic team ever was defeated by the Americans, 87-82. Team USA started Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday, Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bam Adebayo, answering the French quintet of Nando De Colo, Evan Fournier, Nicolas Batum, Guerschon Yabusele and Rudy Gobert.
Contributions from the U.S. bench came from Jayson Tatum, Zach LaVine, Draymond Green and Khris Middleton, while Timoth&eacute; Luwawu-Cabarrot, Frank Ntikilina, Thomas Heurtel and Moustapha Fall were key components of France's second unit. The Frenchmen trailed by as little as 3 points with just eight seconds remaining before Durant iced the game with two free throws.
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Now imagine that game with Joel Embiid... playing for France.
The 28-year-old NBA MVP candidate, who was born and raised in Cameroon and has never played for his home national team (despite <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/things-to-monitor-as-the-next-fiba-world-cups-next-qualifying-window-arrives">coming close in 2017</a>), is reportedly <a href="https://www.si.com/nba/2022/05/02/joel-embiid-could-change-nationality-play-french-national-team-report">eyeing an opportunity to suit up for France</a>.
Embiid has family in France, and is <a href="https://rmcsport.bfmtv.com/basket/basket-joel-embiid-superstar-de-nba-se-rapproche-de-l-equipe-de-france_AV-202205020664.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">considering changing his nationality</a> in order to play for the Frenchmen in the 2024 Olympic Games, where they&rsquo;d enter as one of the favorites to challenge Team USA again for the gold. According to French basketball general manager Boris Diaw, Embiid is <a href="https://actucameroun.com/2022/05/03/boris-diaw-manager-general-de-lequipe-de-france-confirme-les-demarches-entamees-par-joel-embiid-pour-jouer-avec-les-bleus-en-vue-des-jo-2024/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taking the necessary steps</a>.
(Looks like we won't ever see the Embiid-Pascal Siakam tandem for Cameroon, unfortunately.)
In FIBA, each team is allowed one naturalized player on its roster. Current and recent instances of this include American-born players to suit up for different countries, such as Javonte Green (Montenegro), Matt Costello (Ivory Coast), Anthony Randolph (Slovenia) and Andray Blatche (Philippines). Non-American examples include Congolese center Serge Ibaka playing for Spain, Cuban native Ismael Romero playing for Puerto Rico and French-born Aaron Cel playing for Poland. Another famous occasion where this occurred saw Hakeem Olajuwon playing with Team USA in the 1990s.
Regarding American-born WNBA players, known examples include Bria Hartley representing France, Becky Hammon representing Russia and Leilani Mitchell representing Australia. Non-American examples in the women&rsquo;s game include Bahamian Jonquel Jones playing for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Senegal native Astou Ndour playing for Spain.
Now, it may be long before we see Embiid actually playing for France if this process gets finalized, or less than we think if he decides not to wait for the Olympics.
The next major European basketball tournament is EuroBasket 2022, <a href="https://www.fiba.basketball/eurobasket/2022">which will run from Sept. 1-18 later this year</a> across Italy, Germany, Georgia and the Czech Republic. France will be one of 24 teams competing, but seeing Embiid there would be surprising.
The 2023 FIBA World Cup, which France is <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/where-things-stand-after-the-second-window-of-fiba-world-cup-qualifiers">currently attempting to qualify for</a>, will take place from Aug. 25 through Sept. 10, 2023. Qualifying for the World Cup will run through next February before the final pool of 32 teams gets decided.
And the 2024 Summer Olympics, assuming we avoid another global pandemic, is expected to actually run that summer. The host of the Games? France, who will automatically qualify for the tournament <a href="https://www.fiba.basketball/pr-n34-brazils-national-teams-granted-automatic-places-at-2016-olympic-basketball-tournament" target="_blank" rel="noopener">by rule</a>. Embiid will be 30 years old by the next Olympics.
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Since Embiid is reportedly targeting the 2024 Games, let&rsquo;s look at some players who might be his teammates.
The oldest players from the silver-medal-winning squad last summer were De Colo and Batum, who&rsquo;ll be 37 and 35 by the 2024 Games, so expect many of the same players to run it back if possible. One name that could join the fray is Boston Celtics second-round pick Juhann Begarin, who is just 19 years old and was the No. 45 overall selection last summer. Isma&euml;l Kamagate and Hugo Besson, both of whom are 21, are in the 2022 NBA Draft pool; the same goes for 18-year-old Ousmane Dieng, who is quickly rising up draft boards. There's also plenty of hype surrounding fellow 18-year-old, ASVEL star and 7-foot-2 sensation Victor Wembanyama &mdash; a lock to be a high draft pick in 2023.
<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft">BasketballNews.com Sr. NBA Draft Analyst Matt Babcock</a> has Dieng going No. 21 overall, Kamagate at No. 40 and Besson at No. 51.
But really, there&rsquo;s one question we need to answer, and it has to do with a three-time Defensive Player of the Year already on the roster who holds down the 5 position. Could an Embiid and Gobert frontcourt lead France over Team USA?
If you haven&rsquo;t realized, the American pool of bigs is slighter than you think.
Many of the best centers in the NBA aren&rsquo;t American and don&rsquo;t represent America internationally. Examples include Embiid, Gobert, Nikola Jokić (Serbia), Karl-Anthony Towns (Dominican Republic), Nikola Vučević (Montenegro), Kristaps Porziņģis (Latvia), Clint Capela (Switzerland) and Jonas Valančiūnas (Lithuania).
The best centers that have represented Team USA, and/or have Team USA eligibility, have been Adebayo, Green, Jarrett Allen and JaVale McGee. Deandre Ayton (Bahamas) is a player to watch <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2021/06/22/suns-big-deandre-ayton-ideal-team-usa-2024-summer-olympics-paris/5307682001/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">who could represent Team USA in the future</a>, along with younger bigs like Evan Mobley and Chet Holmgren.
Assuming health, so the 2024 American team could start either Adebayo, Ayton or Allen, if not 2 of the 3. Team USA is generally harder to guess in advance, but your starting lineup could look like some combination of Ja Morant, Anthony Edwards, Booker, Tatum and Adebayo. Maybe, to match size, Ayton gets in there instead of Edwards.
Maybe a Trae Young, LaMelo Ball, Bradley Beal, Jaylen Brown and Donovan Mitchell sneak into the backcourt instead. Maybe someone we&rsquo;re not projecting to make another huge leap does &mdash; like Jordan Poole, Tyler Herro or Tyrese Maxey &mdash; or maybe Jaden Ivey or Jabari Smith are more ready than we think by 2024. Even so, you&rsquo;d throw, at best, Adebayo, Ayton, Allen, and Mobley at the Embiid-Gobert combo, and that tandem could be backed up by Dieng, Yabusele, and Vincent Poirier for France.
It&rsquo;s a lot to project, no doubt, but giving <a href="https://www.fiba.basketball/rankingmen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the No. 4 team in the world</a> a top-four player in the world could be what it takes for someone to snatch the gold medal away from Team USA in the Olympics for the first time since 2004.
But a lot can happen in two years, so we'll table this... for now.&nbsp;
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