Joel Embiid, USA embraces WWE heel role as crowd boos medal ceremony

Team USA basketball and Joel Embiid embraced the WWE heel role, trolling the French crowd while accepting their gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Aug 8, 2024; Paris, France; United States centre Joel Embiid (11) celebrates after the game against Serbia in a men's basketball semifinal game during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Accor Arena. M / Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Joel Embiid and USA basketball aren't bothered by the boo birds.

After winning the gold medal over host nation France in Saturday's gold medal game, the French crowd at the 2024 Paris Olympics was showering Team USA with boos. Instead of letting the sour crowd ruin their gold medal moment, Team USA went full WWE heel.

LeBron James and company were antagonizing the crowd and telling them to get louder, while Joel Embiid, who was eligible to play for France but chose to represent the United States, hit the crowd with the "Suck It" motion that was made popular by D-Generation X, which originated right before the turn to the iconic "Attitude Era."

France was booing Embiid when receiving his gold medal, and in the most WWF way possible Team USA embraced the boos and Embiid did the DX SUCK IT motion 😂😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/OKnjDiBWmO

— Big Boss 🇵🇸 (@LordBalvin) August 10, 2024

That is some Olympic-level trolling.

Aug 8, 2024; Paris, France; United States centre Joel Embiid (11) celebrates after the game against Serbia in a men's basketball semifinal game during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Accor Arena. / Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Aug 8, 2024; Paris, France; United States centre Joel Embiid (11) celebrates after the game against Serbia in a men's basketball semifinal game during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Accor Arena. / Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports

It wasn't easy for Team USA to win gold in the 2024 Paris Games, but in the end they came out on top.

The United States needed a 17-point comeback against Nikola Jokic and Serbia in the semifinals to punch their ticket to the gold medal game, which was sparked by Steph Curry.

Curry again proved to be a spark plug for the United States in the final as the team needed to hold off a late French run.

It wasn't easy, but the job was done. And the haters can, well, you know what Embiid said.

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