The Philadelphia 76ers signed Paul George and drafted Jared McCain last year to boost their hopes of winning a championship. In the lead-up to the season, their fans were kind of already celebrating. Unfortunately, as it happens, fate heard of their plans, giggled a bit, and cursed them down with injuries that completely decimated their ranks and forced them into cowering in a foxhole.
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One of the pre-season favorites, the 76ers at one point, found themselves being involved in a 9-game losing streak. Then came their biggest setback. After testing him, the team announced that Joel Embiid would have to sit out the rest of the season after January owing to recurring issues with his left knee.
Embiid’s knees had already been an issue for some time now. He played only 39 games in the 2023-24 season, courtesy of a torn meniscus. He would return to win an Olympic gold for the USA, but would only make his 2024-25 NBA season debut in November. Consequently, as he appears recovered, the pressure is on him and the 76ers to make something of the upcoming season.
The 76ers’ Twitter handle recently posted a small video of Embiid working out on the court, notably without a knee brace. They also had videos of Paul George and V.J. Edgecombe practicing hard, forcing NBA analyst Chris Mannix to allow himself a little bit of hope for the team.
He was joined by Rachel Nichols, who reiterated a question she has asked a few times now. “Are we sleeping on the Sixers?”
She said that when the team was assembled last summer, everybody thought they would be competing to come out of the East. Although there have been a few setbacks between then and now, “there is nothing to say that isn’t possible,” Nichols noted.
“That’s certainly the ceiling this year. You know, being in the NBA finals, then it’s anyone’s game. We just don’t know how low the floor is,” she added.
Noting that last season everybody realized that the floor could be extremely low, Nichols, however, asserted, “But there’s no reason why if everything comes together and I understand, especially with the Sixers, especially around Joel Embiid, that’s a huge sentence … But the truth is, if everyone is healthy, they have talent on their team and the East is very open this year.”
Mannix concurred, adding that contrary to popular belief, Embiid was far from washed, and if he were healthy, he would be one of the most dominant players in the NBA. That said, he hasn’t been able to stay healthy.
At this point, Nichols did a deep dive into his career and said, “The last time he was healthy, he was scoring more than a point a minute.” Mannix noted that this year could very well be that year since he’s had some time off to recover, adding that there was no reason for Embiid to be around the Olympics team last season.
Mannix even believes that, should Embiid be able to move the way he has moved throughout his career, there is no reason he wouldn’t be an MVP candidate. Add Tyrese Maxey and Paul George into the mix, and the Sixers have the best big 3 in the East, Mannix added.
Nichols, however, still has her reservations about Embiid, and it’s not about the status of his knee injury. “Here’s the thing I saw last season that worried me the most,” she continued.
“He was uncomfortable with the idea of playing and injuring himself further. There was a mental component to what was going on with him last season, and that extended into the Sixers at times, not knowing until tip-off if he was available to play,” she asserted.
Stressing that it wasn’t anything like a Kawhi Leonard-like situation, shrouded in secrecy, Nichols added that Embiid would go out on the court and feel it. While she hasn’t spoken to him about this and was only basing the statement on having watched athletes for years, Nichols stated that this is just what it seemed like to her.
“Do you remember in the original Top Gun, when they get to the big final battle scene and Maverick is in the plane … everyone’s like, ‘Maverick, engage, engage, engage,’ and he’s like, ‘oh, talk to me, Goose, talk to me.’ He just couldn’t mentally get in there because there was this fear of washing out and crashing out … I kept thinking of that scene when Joel Embiid would do warmups last season,” Nichols added.
In Top Gun, Tom Cruise’s character, Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, blames himself for the death of his best friend and wingman, Goose, despite it being a freak accident. That affected Maverick mentally, who was quite a free-spirited fighter pilot. We saw the same in the final battle scene, where he turned to Goose, before finally composing himself.
Similarly, Nichols noted that Embiid had suffered from so many injuries that were so “bonkers”, which was followed by him being so severely criticized that he simply didn’t want to risk it anymore at that point. Well, the Sixers would hope Embiid has put all that behind him now and is ready to lead them into becoming THE team from the East.
