SAN FRANCISCO — Joel Embiid didn’t speak.
Not with his words, anyway.
The Philadelphia 76ers big man who was ridiculed for three days after his latest passing, and whose MVP defense has been in jeopardy from the start because of the league’s sensitive 65-game rule that puts so much pressure on his situation, didn’t have to have him say anything after leaving the Chase Center floor late Tuesday night, sore from an apparent knee injury.
As was the case on Saturday afternoon, when his scratch against the Denver Nuggets sparked a chorus of criticism over his perceived lack of willingness to face a fellow great in Nikola Jokić, the terrible optics were enough.
Only this time, in stark contrast to the Mile High City incident, Embiid had suddenly become a sympathetic figure. And if anyone was afraid, because he was accused of being inside someone high-profile media circlesit was the Sixers team (29-17) that now found itself fifth in the Eastern Conference standings after losing 119-107 against Golden State.
It says a lot that Sixers coach Nick Nurse was unduly slow in attending his postgame press conference, or that his responses to questions about the left knee injury he suffered with 4 minutes, 4 seconds left in the fourth consecutive defeat seemed so tried. It’s never a good sign when a team’s top front office executive, in this case, the Sixers’ Daryl Morey, is making the rounds in the back hallways of the visitors’ arena seeking the perspective of the team’s medical staff . All the Sixers parties that matter most were clearly worried.
As for Embiid, he opted not to speak to reporters afterward, prioritizing an ice bath that lasted late into the night. And with good reason.
The MRI results will determine how worried these Sixers will have to be as they move forward on this title-chasing mission. As for Embiid’s resume, he can only miss five more games before being ruled ineligible for the kind of postseason rewards that have shaped the legacy of the greats for so long. This is the micro of everything. Jonathan Kuminga of the Warriors he landed on Embiid’s left knee at the end of the game, and his evening full of laborious movements fortunately ended with Warriors fans wishing him well with applause and even a few mini-standing ovations.
But the macro, and the thing that should inspire fans and journalists to think twice about discussing this enormous man who is a true basketball treasure when his body allows it, is that Embiid is clearly battling the same type of physical ailments which have haunted him for much of his 10-year career.
As a Sixers source indicated late Tuesday night, he has been dealing with soreness in the same left knee all season. And while Nurse indicated that the injury that forced him to belatedly leave was somewhat different than the one that had dogged him as of late, Embiid’s theme remained unchanged: He was battered and bruised before February even arrived, and his ability to be at his best out here is suddenly a serious question again.
Have we all forgotten that the reigning MVP missed his first two full seasons due to foot injuries, or that he reached the hallowed 65-game mark only twice in the seven seasons he played? There are shades of Yao Ming here, with the talent so transcendent but that nagging sense of physical doom and sadness always waiting around the proverbial corner.
Embiid has already accomplished far more than the 7-foot-6, 310-pound former Houston Rockets big man was able to do in his nine-year, injury-interrupted career, but the unwanted parallels are there. Starting with the size.
You could see it long before he was injured against the Warriors. Embiid, who missed Philadelphia’s game at Portland on Monday night, looked like a player who was pushed to play against Golden State because the entire basketball world was screaming in his ears. There are people within the Sixers who are convinced he only played because of all the scrutiny.
He was terrible by his lofty standards, finishing with 14 points, seven rebounds and two assists while missing 13 of 18 shots and settling for jumpers on all but one attempt. Embiid always paced the court, but this was a level of uncertainty and instability you didn’t often see from him. And hearing Sixers guard Kelly Oubre talk about Embiid’s unlucky night afterward was like a reminder that gravity has never been his friend. While Embiid is listed at 7 feet and 280 pounds, those measurements are widely believed to be smaller than his current size.
“(Are there people) pushing him to force him to get big when he’s 300 pounds (and) 7-foot-5?” Oubre said exaggerating Embiid’s height. “Like, come on bro. … I think this year people are really going to understand that his whole career he had to make sure his body was okay. It’s like NASCAR, right? If their cars don’t work and their mechanics really can’t get the job done before the race, then what can they do? They can’t compete.
“This is our body. Our body is our machine and we must treat it with respect. He weighs 350 pounds, bro. So, you know, I’m praying for him for a speedy recovery, so that he can go in and give himself the best chance. But in the end, this is not important. “Her body and his career (are) more important.”
So maybe we should have dug a little deeper before trashing him for his absence in Denver. The undersigned included.
There was one piece of evidence that was largely ignored from Thursday night’s game against Indiana, when Embiid went down midway through the second quarter and His left knee looked like it hurt that would be his downfall in Denver. Nonetheless, he played against the Pacers and finished with 31 points, seven rebounds and three assists in 31 minutes.
Fast forward two nights, and it was entirely fair to wonder why Embiid wasn’t on the injury report ahead of the Nuggets game (and make no mistake, the league investigated this very matter). But the criticism of his absence went much further.
Embiid was considered a coward in some circles, someone who would rather be booed (and was) than face Jokić in his building. It doesn’t matter that he had just beaten Jokić in Philadelphia less than two weeks earlier.
Yet while it’s true that Embiid hasn’t played in Denver since 2019, and that he has now missed six of eight games in the Mile High City while Jokić has played every time, context matters a lot here. A quick recap for the sake of fairness to Embiid.
His first two absences in Denver (December 30, 2017, AND January 26, 2019) came at a time when rest was an even more important part of his rehabilitation program. And while they were the most suspect of the six, the fact that Embiid was still in his infancy in putting together a sustained NBA run while he tried to stay healthy was definitely no small factor. Yet the three that preceded Saturday’s absence – all arriving after the last Jokić-Embiid confrontation in November 8, 2019 — were different enough to merit examination.
- March 30, 2021: Embiid had been out since March 12 with a bone bruise on his left knee and wouldn’t return until April 3 (two games later against Minnesota). This is unquestionably legitimate.
- November 18, 2021: Embiid missed his sixth straight game after entering the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols. He was out from November 6th to 27th. Legitimate too.
- March 27, 2023: Embiid he sits with a sore right calf. He would play the match before and the match after. This, it’s safe to say, can be up for debate.
That’s not to say the story of Embiid not playing in Denver isn’t strange. But it’s one thing to wonder aloud why this trend has emerged, but it’s another to attack the competitive character of a player who is already worthy of being considered an all-time great. Those hot takes look cold in more ways than one now.
Ditto for the premature approval of the league’s 65-game rule. While fans, owners, broadcast partners and league officials have every right to want to resolve the league’s load management dilemma, the early results here are enough to make you wonder whether it might need to be revisited due to unintended consequences. Is it a good thing that the reigning MVP is on the verge of walking out of that conversation before we reach the All-Star break?
“I didn’t sign up for that (65-game rule),” Sixers backup center Paul Reed said of the rule agreed to as part of the league’s collective bargaining agreement that was ratified last April and runs through the season 2029-30. season. “I don’t remember signing any documents, do you understand me? I imagine the (players’) union gave the approval. But they probably had no choice, to be honest. Yes, it’s difficult. It adds a lot of pressure on the players. We were just talking about it. A lot of pressure, especially guys like (Embiid who are doing it) trying to get MVP again.
Embiid’s health is the only priority that matters right now.
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(Photo: Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
