Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid has become the butt of many jokes around NBA circles. The Cameroonian star has played in only 58 games since winning the MVP award in 2023. A brilliantly written piece by ESPN’s Dotun Akintoye provides a heartwarming update on the seven-time All-Star.
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To keep it frank, the 2024-25 season was a disaster for the Sixers. Their big three Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George played a total of 15 games together. It didn’t help that in their total 619 possessions together, the trio had a negative net rating of -0.9.
Embiid understands the weight of last season’s failure, which is why his preparation for this upcoming season is so important.
“[Joel Embiid] played just 19 games and looked like himself in only a fraction of those,” Akintoye said. “Now, he’s in the middle of what he’s calling the ‘most important’ offseason of his life, rebuilding his body again, preparing to launch into what he hopes will be, if all goes well, his final chapter as an elite-level player.”
Durability has always been the main question surrounding Embiid as a player. In 2024, instead of utilizing the offseason to put himself in the best position to be available as much as possible throughout the 82-game season, he played for Team USA in the Paris Olympics.
That decision led to a great deal of criticism when he began the 2024-25 season on the sidelines due to injury. NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins recalled his initial reaction to Embiid’s decision.
“I stood on an island by myself and said that Joel Embiid not only should he have not played in the Olympics, he should have not played towards the end of the season when they got bounced by the New York Knicks,” Perkins said on ESPN’s First Take.
For those who don’t remember, Embiid was playing through several ailments in the Sixers’ 2024 first-round playoff series against the Knicks. He dealt with Bell’s Palsy, which impaired his vision, and he also tweaked his left knee after throwing down an emphatic self-alley-oop in Game 1.
Yet somehow, none of those injuries were severe enough to prevent Embiid from playing in the Olympics. In hindsight, as Perk implied, it may have been better for him to take the time to rest ahead of the 2024-25 season.
“I said, ‘The Philadelphia 76ers need to shut him down and put a plan in place,” Perkins proclaimed. “And at that point, I got called everything but a child of God, but here we are.”
Akintoye’s interview gave Embiid a chance to clear his name and tell the fans what they can expect from him going forward. “He thinks explaining himself will be distorted into defending himself, which will be caricatured as complaining,” wrote Akintoye, but the Sixers star’s transparency should pave the way for fan forgiveness.
It seems that Embiid will be ready by the start of the new season. If so, this may be the most pivotal year of his career. The Eastern Conference is wide open. If there was ever a time to make it past the second round, it is now.
