NBA legend and 2x NBA MVP Steve Nash is hosting a serious Showdown NY soccer event this June, and 76ers All-Star center Joel Embiid is commanding the same attention there as he gets in the paint in the NBA playoffs. Nash is pumped to have such talent in his ranks, but Nash is clearly extra excited about Embiid, who makes a striking figure out there among the traditionally sized soccer players.
Now that the NBA is truly an international league, more players come from all across the globe — and in most places soccer is still the #1 sport. (Even if they call it football!) Growing up in Cameroon, in central Africa, Embiid learned soccer before basketball. Long before he’d heard of the University of Kentucky (where he was recruited to play) or the Philadelphia 76ers, Embiid was out on the soccer pitch with the rest of the kids in his neighborhood. You can tell he remembers what he learned — watch the big man juggle the soccer ball in the video below. Embiid will be no doubt rooting for the Cameroonian women in the World Cup, where they are set to take on Holland next!
