It’s becoming increasingly obvious the former MVP is not going to perform at that level again. So how should we feel about what he’s given the franchise to this point?
At their cores, sports are things that can be inherently viewed in a black and white fashion. Every game has a winner and a loser. As we often hear, it’s a results-oriented business and if you don’t win enough, you’re soon seeking employment elsewhere.
But there’s a big problem with broadening this mindset too far. There are different levels of winners and losers and anyone that follows sports even casually should be able to detect this simple nuance. There is only one champion at the end of every season. That does not mean that every other player and team that isn’t the champion failed. Ken Griffey Jr is one of the greatest baseball players ever. He never played in the World Series. Michael Jordan made sure a long list of Hall of Famers did not win championships. On the flip side, star players that do win championships in their careers can still leave behind complicated legacies.
It’s through this kind of lens that we should be viewing Joel Embiid’s career, all of which has been spent with the Sixers. To be clear, his career is not officially over, but in light of this past weekend’s news that the team is going to look at alternative treatments for his ailing knee, a bleak picture only looks bleaker. He’s going to go down as one of the biggest “What ifs” in Philadelphia sports history.
As time passed in the last decade, it became clearer to everyone that Embiid was not going to be given a clean bill of health. But there were enough signs of hope for fans to hold onto in some fashion. A narrative seemed to emerge that the chances of winning a championship with Embiid as the best player were not high, but Embiid’s presence on the roster and talent level whenever he was 100% was too tantalizing to move on from. There was enough hope for someone to say that maybe the stars can align one year into June even if Embiid is never going to be able to be counted on to play a ton of regular season games. After all, it was only two years ago that the Sixers had the Boston Celtics on the ropes in the second round, leading 3-2 in the best-of-seven series.
Well, we all know how that Boston series ended and know what has followed in the last two years since. The recent reports about more treatment for Embiid’s knee should come as no surprise to anyone and it feels like the Sixers are finally tapping out on 2024-25. The team made plenty of efforts to find a workable solution for Embiid and scratch its way into the playoffs but the last few weeks seemed to have ended that discussion regardless of what the standings say.
However, unlike previous injuries for Embiid, practically no one is taking the approach of “let’s just take another crack at it next year.” Embiid turns 31 in March. Everyone knew that there wasn’t much time left to win a championship with him as the team’s best player, and now it seems like there isn’t any time left to do so. Whatever medical decisions are made in the future concerning Embiid’s knee, another lengthy rehab process will follow. Simply put, Embiid’s body is breaking down and the eulogies on his career are already being written regardless of how it officially ends. It’s not so much a surprise as it is a sobering reality of where we are.
The right way to summarize Embiid’s career to this point is by acknowledging the wide array of colors in the spectrum rather than take such a black and white approach. There is a lot of truth to the fact that Embiid contributed to his own demise. Questions were asked again and again about his commitment to conditioning and staying in shape, and he never really answered them in a way that stopped them from being asked again in the future. Therefore, it’s difficult to say how much of Embiid’s injury history is bad luck as opposed to bad decision making.
At the same time, Embiid is a human being and someone that wants to help his team. You can question the degree with which he wants to win because skeptics would point to the fact that if he was a maniacal competitor, he would have taken better care of his body. But this is the same person that’s played with a mask on his face in multiple playoff series. When Embiid’s current knee injury first occurred last season just before the All-Star break in San Francisco, he wanted to come back and play in the playoffs. Not only did he come back, but he had 50 points in a Game 3 playoff win against the Knicks.
After that win, we found out Embiid was dealing with symptoms of Bell’s Palsy and he still suited up for the remainder of the series. While the Sixers lost the series to New York, it was very competitive and had they been able to win it, they would have been favored to beat Indiana in the second round in all likelihood. There was a path towards making a run last spring and Embiid wanted to be a part of it. Who can blame him?
In the summer, Embiid wanted to participate in the Olympics for the United States. He had recently become an American citizen and said he wanted to honor his son who was born in the United States by playing in the Olympics with Team USA. Is he supposed to be shamed for this motive? Embiid played a key role for the US in defeating Nikola Jokic and Serbia in a tight semifinal game and ultimately won a gold medal with the rest of the team in the next game against France. He probably knew at the time that the 2028 Olympic Games were going to be a longshot for him to participate in so he wanted to take advantage of what was likely his only opportunity to represent the United States in the Olympics.
If we’re never going to see him at 100% again, the examples of how talented he was are endless and should be appreciated. He dropped 70 points against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs about a week before the fateful knee injury last season for crying out loud. Perhaps the most special moment of his career was when he received the MVP award during the playoff series against Boston two years ago and his son ran onto the court, Embiid picked him up and began to cry. We can question his decision making and criticize his playoff shortcomings all we want, but Joel Embiid is a human being that cares about winning and is probably more disappointed than anyone about his consistent injury history.
As the early playoff exits piled up, rumors would often swirl that Embiid would be the next NBA superstar to request a trade. To some extent, he would have been right to do so because the organization certainly failed him through several changes to the roster, coaching staff and front office around Embiid. But that request never happened. Embiid has given his entire career to the Sixers. The recent extension that he signed that is getting understandably criticized was also a signal that he wanted to be a Sixer for life. That’s admirable in a time in which players have never felt more empowered in the NBA.
Who knows what the future holds for Embiid? It sure seems like whatever he looks like next season and beyond, it’s not going to be enough to be the best player on a championship caliber team. So let’s acknowledge that Joel Embiid made some bad decisions throughout his career and at the same time that he’s one of the most talented players to ever wear the Sixers uniform. We should be grateful for the good moments he did give us to this point as well.