“The males almost lost to some Africans,” Arenas said. “Got d—. We almost lost to the [imitates motion of blowing dart], and the King [LeBron James] had to save us. I know the LeBron haters are mad. We almost lost to the ‘Ah-he, ah-he tribe.’ This is crazy.”
He then brought up Team USA center Joel Embiid, who was born in Cameroon.
“Man, Embiid over there got d— throwing the game for his cousins and s—,” Arenas said. “We weren’t supposed to be losing to air up there. Come on, man, cool runnings. They don’t even have shoes; they get their shoes from America. We got to ship them shoes. They don’t even have basketball rims, dawg. Manute Bol had to walk, what? An hour and a half to go shoot basketball? We were about to lose to people who are shooting on f—– peach baskets in dirt with no shoes.”
Embiid was asked about Arenas’ comments.
“I might be playing for Team USA, but I’m Cameroonian, first and foremost,” Embiid said. “I don’t know exactly what he said, I can’t comment on it, but if it was that negative, it’s just disappointing because you see what African basketball has done for us to be in this position to be able to make some sort of impact. Even in the position I’m in, I still have a lot of impact in the place that I’m from, the whole continent of Africa. That’s never going to stop. Like I said, it’s really unfortunate, especially in the world we live in now. There’s so much negativity.”
I asked @usabasketball’s Cameroon-born 🇨🇲 star Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) about Gilbert Arena’s (@GilsArenaShow) recent disgusting and racist comments about Africans and African basketball players… @FECABASKET @FIBA @SSBFed pic.twitter.com/aBRZfXnxTi
— Δ¥Ω™ (@iam_Ayo) July 22, 2024
Michaela Onyenwere, a Nigerian forward who currently plays for the Chicago Sky in the WNBA, also reacted to Arenas.
“Gilbert Arenas is so ignorant,” Onyenwere posted on X. “Shaking my head.”
Onyenwere has since deleted the post.
