"What Is Happening with Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers?" - Opinion

“What is happening with Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers?” - Opinion

January 23, 2025

WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH JOEL EMBIID? It’s the 192.9-million-dollar question that anyone following the Philadelphia 76ers is asking right now.  There was a brief reprieve to the dismal start of the Sixers’ season in December when Embiid – as well as Paul George, the other aging star signed to a max contract via free agency over the summer – was available for the majority of games. The team not only had a 9-3 record for the month, but they also pulled off an exciting Christmas Day win on the road against last year’s NBA World Champion, the Boston Celtics.  

Alas, 2025 is here, and things now appear to be going from bad to worse for both the team and for Embiid himself.  While there are other ongoing injury issues with several players, the biggest gut punch has been Joel Embiid’s very spotty availability due to both his ongoing “left knee management” and new issues, including a foot sprain and a sinus fracture. The former All-Star center just signed a max deal worth $192.9 million dollars for the next 3 years.  The former MVP is one of the most impactful players in the game when he’s healthy…WHEN HE’S HEALTHY is the key phrase.  Embiid’s health has been rocky from the start – he’s never played more than 68 (out of 82) regular season games throughout his career nor been ever completely healthy for playoffs.

One has to assume that a lot of thought from key decision makers – team doctors, head coach Nick Nurse, team president Daryl Morey, etc. – preceded that choice to give Embiid this huge extension and payday, given his history of injury.  When pressed earlier in the season, the organization did put out a statement that they’d consulted with at least 5 or 6 doctors regarding Embiid’s knee and whether it would be manageable enough for this expensive new contract to make sense.  So far, the doctors’ predictions of manageability haven’t panned out; he is needing to sit out a lot more games than just ones involving back-to-backs, and the results for the team have been a disaster.

It seems that “The Process” Era (of rebuilding the team around Joel Embiid to become an eventual championship contender) is coming to an abrupt end.  It’s becoming increasingly obvious that Embiid is unlikely to ever be the same MVP-caliber player that he has been in years past.  With his contract being an albatross that no other team would want to take on in a trade, it’s time for a pivot to damage control – even if the organization hasn’t admitted this publicly.  I would hope that they are planning aggressive intervention options for the knee issue behind the scenes, aiming to salvage what’s left of his career by getting him on the court more regularly in a capacity where he can at least be a reliable role player for spacing the floor and rebounding.

Tyrese Maxey, who was awarded “Most Improved Player” last year in addition to being named a first-time All-Star, is undoubtedly the Sixers’ future.  He is still putting up impressive numbers despite the team’s dismal record, but it’s not enough to result in wins when all of the defense ends up closing in on him.  Maxey is a great passer, but with Embiid’s absence and all of the injuries to other high-level role players like Caleb Martin and KJ Martin, there’s not always a good choice of teammates to whom he can or should pass.  The offense tends to get stagnant, with everyone other than Maxey kind of standing around. He ends up just trying to do everything himself and often succeeds impressively at driving through defenders and somehow still getting a shot to go in, often while falling or drawing a foul at the same time.  But it’s not enough.  He can’t do it all by himself, and having Embiid regularly available at even 50% of his previous level would at least help space the floor and open up more options for Maxey to pass and drive without having to go through double-and-triple-teams defending him.

Some consistency and regularity of play/practice with teammates would help Embiid and everyone else on the team execute better during games. Getting the big guy back on the court more often would really help team morale and fan morale.  Most importantly, getting his NBA career back on some sort of track, even if it’s just as a role player, would do wonders for the mental health of Embiid himself.  He is obviously struggling with the ongoing knee issue as much or more than other stakeholders are. He rarely smiles and often looks lethargic, and his frustrations have now boiled over twice this season – once in a locker-room altercation with a reporter, and then a couple months later during a cringeworthy and profanity-laced shouting match in the face of a diminutive female referee.

Just imagine the weight of expectations with a multi-million dollar contract and your body not cooperating with you, fighting constant disillusionment and disappointment about setbacks...now think about doing all of that under the constant scrutiny of the public eye – the fans and the press and your teammates and the world – and not being able to even play reliably for a team that has considered you the key to their championship hopes for almost a decade.  As those hopes go up in flames, Joel Embiid does not need to imagine this. He is living this nightmare every day, every minute, every second, and it shows…

Part 2 –

AN OPEN LETTER TO JOEL EMBIID FROM A LIFELONG 76ERS FAN:

Joel, we don’t hate you. We love you.  We just hate the situation.  We want to know what’s going on because we care about you as a person.  We want you to feel valued and be empowered to move the team forward, to bring “The Process” to its intended conclusion of an NBA Championship or at least an NBA Finals appearance.  We entrusted you with the max long-term contract because we still believe in you.  We just want a little more transparency. We are frustrated about your lack of availability and the near-silence that we are getting from the organization in response to inquiries about your status.

For better or worse, we just want more specific information from the organization – or ideally from you, in your own words – about what is going on here.  It’s been implied that some of the issues are more mental than physical, which is understandable given all that you have been through in your life and with the injuries.  Seeking help for mental health conditions like anxiety and depression is now widely accepted as routine here in the USA. High-profile professional athletes like Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles in women’s sports are being hailed as heroes for discussing their mental health struggles.  Why not be the first really high-profile male athlete to do so during his career?

Those of us who are true lifelong fans of the 76ers are the most hurt by the silence.  We see the contract that was signed as a partnership with us, too, and we are emotional because we feel that we are potentially being misled about your health status.  We know that it must be even more frustrating for you than it is for us, and we understand that no one enjoys being vulnerable and discussing things in life that are not going as planned due to physical and mental health issues.  Just tell us the truth about everything so that we can rally others to root for your comeback success vs. vilifying you for your frequent absence and your silence.  It’s not too late to get the city and the fans back on your side, big fella!