Joel Embiid Is Heading For Beast Mode

Face Facts: A Healthy Joel Embiid Is Arriving, And Just What The Philadelphia 76ers Need

Beast Mode.  Elite Talent.  One for the highlights. LION KILLER.

Get used to the concept, because the Philadelphia 76ers are running out of time on the “cellar dweller” status.  The team has been marking time, marching in place, whether or not it is Bryan Colangelo or Sam Hinkie running this ship.  For two plus years the Philadelphia 76ers have idled while the rest of the NBA has lapped us, taunted us, declared virtually every draft pick of the SIxers to be a bust, and the franchise to be so far gone that it will take at least three years of improving talent just to make the team capable of breaking .500.

I’ve got news for NBA pundits and fans everywhere.  We have been using that time, not to lose, but to rejuvenate the stellar center from Kansas, the young man from the country of Cameroon known as Joel Embiid.

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And we’ve got news for you 76ers fans.  HE HAS FINALLY REPORTED HIMSELF AS HEALTHY.  For over 750 days, that has not been the case.  After all that time, after thousands of miles traveled to experts across the globe, and after countless hours of medical professions placing the humpty dumpty right foot of the NBA talented prospect back together.

The final question is whether it will all have been worth it.  The final answer?  Yes.

You don’t need to phone a friend, take away two wrong answers, or even sleep on it. He’s going to answer the bell when it sounds.

Why am I so confident? He’s back. The passion, the humor, the visibility, the personality, the training, the comraderie, the gratitude, the love, the potential, and even the chance of things not ending up in an incredible place are all out there now.

The NBA hopes for a player of Joel Embiid’s caliber to find the league.  The sport needs passionate, fun loving, smile infecting players who love the game, the competition, the risk of success versus failure.

So what makes Joel Embiid so special?  Let’s talk about that for a moment, shall we?

Next: Lion Killer

The Lion Killer

To set the stage, I found a perfect story about Joel Embiid in the The Kansas City Star written by Rustin Dodd.

"This is a story about Joel Embiid, the lion killer. It was late last summer, and the Kansas basketball team had gathered in the locker room for a post-workout tradition. The exercise was called “Thursday Vibes,” and it was pretty simple. The players would go around the circle, sharing secrets and stories. It was meant to be a team-building exercise, and Embiid, who had arrived on campus earlier that summer, was up next. The story came together quickly: Embiid had killed a lion back in Cameroon. “It wasn’t the king of the jungle,” Tharpe recalled. “It was like a nice-sized lion, and he said he killed it.” On that day, the story began. “JoJo killed a lion,” Tharpe said. “We weren’t going to question the man.” The only problem: Like a creation myth that keeps changing, becoming more exaggerated each time, Embiid’s story kept evolving. “First he told us this big lie about him and his tribe,” former teammate Niko Roberts said. “He had to go through this ‘becoming a man’ process. And he had to kill a lion with his bare hands. Then he tells us it was with a spear. Then the next time he might have shot the lion.” “I don’t know,” Roberts continued, smiling. “He was just the biggest liar on the team.” There were other cracks in the story. Embiid had grown up in the bustling city of Yaounde. His father, Thomas, a former handball player, had raised his two kids on a comfortable military salary. Young Joel took to soccer, enjoying the rhythms of the game. “I should have been a goalkeeper,” Embiid said, upon arriving at Kansas. “But I was a midfielder.” He never killed a lion, but he did dream of becoming one — an indomitable lion, the nickname of the Cameroon national soccer team. But then he found basketball. After arriving in the United States in 2011, he spent one season at Montverde Academy in Florida before transferring to The Rock School in Gainesville, Fla., to seek more playing time. During his days at The Rock, he would still play pickup soccer during lunch, but the focus was now on basketball. The game came easily to him. On one of the first days of practice, Justin Harden, the head coach at The Rock, began to install a set play to get his team into its motion offense. He instructed Embiid to do a dribble handoff at the top of the key, but instead of giving the ball up, he instinctively slipped through two defenders and attacked the lane. “And that’s an option also,” Harden called out. “He was an abstract thinker. He could see it.”"

From the moment he arrived to the Kansas Jayhawks, Jo Jo could see it. And if he could see it, he could do it and do it well.

Next: Savant

Video

The video story has grown larger than life. Without video technology, the NBA world may have never known about Joel Embiid from Cameroon. The story as told by Grantland’s Jordan Ritter Conn on June 24, 2014 is instrumental in understanding the optimism welling up inside the hearts of all Philadelphia 76ers fans.  In his article, Conn shares the life of the young Cameroon, who came from the heart of soccer country to join the unfamiliar game of basketball.

It was a video tape of Nigerian center Hakeem Olajuwon that truly hooked Joel Embiid into basketball.  That tape transformed an American sport into a professional sport Jo Jo immediately envisioned himself playing.  It transformed the game of basketball into Embiid’s calling.  In actuality, it was a video compilation of 1990 NBA centers, featuring Hakeem Olajuwan, David Robinson and Patrick Ewing.  Joel’s coach, Guy Moudio, had received it from a friend. He had never instructed players to watch tape before, but Embiid was growing desperate for any piece of information he could find on his new sport.

“I want to be Olajuwon” – Joel Embiid

“Here Jo Jo, you might like this.” Moudio told his player while handing it to him.

The tape didn’t come with a synapse, training guide, or even a “how to” book. While Moudio was concerned about Embiid’s fundamentals, the coach actually didn’t mind his young big man’s affinity for playing outside. The tape of Olajuwon wasn’t intended to be a lesson. Embiid liked to watch basketball, so Moudio gave him a video. That was it.

"“I never force big guys to play in the post,” he says. “I want everyone to know how to play every position.”"

If Embiid was going to be a swing man, that was fine. Moudio just wanted him to be a swingman who knew to keep his elbow in on jump shots and his knees bent when handling the ball.

But after one night with the tape, Embiid didn’t want to be a swingman anymore.

“I want to be Olajuwon,” he told Moudio.

From then on, every day was built around reaching that goal. He’d mimic Olajuwon’s Dream Shake, finding that even if he couldn’t put the ball in the basket, he could still move with a fluidity and grace that approximated Olajuwon’s moves. He’d strap on a weight vest and stand near the basket while Moudio lofted ball after ball to the sky, jumping to catch each one at its apex. Sometimes, he’d cry from the pain. He’d learn a move from coaches one day, then put it to use in a game the next.

The story exemplifies why Joel Embiid is so much more than just a freak athlete who can play.   Much like the voice of Adelle to song composers- Joel Embiid can translate what his coach wants from him almost perfectly.

Next: Basketball Savant

He’s a basketball savant

Joel Embiid does not have ancestral family heritage that has exposed him to the game of basketball before he was born.  No, he was somebody who came late the sport of basketball, taking up the sport around age 15 or so.  He’s now 22, but subtract 2 years of rehabbing at the NBA level.  That’s just five years of basketball, just one of which was playing for an NCAA level program – when Embiid played center for the Kansas University Jayhawks.

Since Joel Embiid was new to basketball, teams realized that they could provoke the young Cameroon into losing his cool.  And so they did, taunting Embiid into a streak of three consecutive games where he was called for a flagrant foul.

"“I would say during the game, there’s a lot of things that happen. If I did something, it means he probably did something,” Embiid said. “But I just don’t want people to see me as — I don’t do that on purpose, but I don’t want people to see me as like I’m weak or something like that. I just don’t take anything from anybody.”"

Yes, Philadelphia 76ers fans, we’ve found a player who has our mindset. But he’s more than passion.  He’s a basketball player with untapped potential and he’s had, by rights, just one truly competitive season in the NCAA where he showcased his stuff.

So how did he become so dangerous?

"“Since I started playing ball, the things that have helped me the most have been watching tape and listening. I think that I have listen to everything that Coach (Brett Brown) says and that’s something I’m really going to focus on this season. I want to learn about the NBA. Coach always talks about nutrition and sleeping, so I will definitely be paying attention.”"

He’s not kidding.  He’s like a sponge.  A story has been reported that Joel Embiid would watch NBA basketball in the evenings while playing for the Jayhawks, and then replicate the moves from the previous night’s television on the practice court.

If that is true, he will be a very dangerous NBA player indeed.

Next: Hakeem Says

Hakeem Says

Now for the story of the video from Embiid’s perspective, as recorded by the Sporting News’ DeCourcy:

"When I was 15, that’s when I had the thought that I wanted to play basketball,” Embiid said, sitting on an end zone bleacher at Allen Fieldhouse. “My dad wasn’t really — he was against it. But I had my uncle talk to him, and he finally convinced him to let me play basketball. And then I started playing. “When I started playing basketball, my coach back in Cameroon the first day he gave me a video of Hakeem Olajuwon. He told me to watch it every day. After practice, after every practice, I’d watch every move he did — and I’d just keep doing that. I just fell in love with his game, his footwork, how he moves. I was so proud — I wanted to be like him, because he’s African, moved from Nigeria to the U.S. I just felt if I had the chance to come here, I would try to do the same thing.” At the beginning it was kind of difficult for me, because it was so physical,” Embiid said. “Back home, it wasn’t the same. At Montverde, we had really good players like Dakari Johnson, we had so many guys. I think we had more than five pros on the team. I think that’s how I got better, playing against them every day. But it was hard at the beginning. “When I got here, I wasn’t known, so I didn’t have any offers. I was just like, ‘If anybody recruits me, I’m just going to go there and try to get my degree.’ And then in summer I played AAU, and I think I did pretty good. So I started having offers. I had a chance to have my mentor Luc, he was helping me a lot. I started watching NCAA games, and I liked Kansas. And even Luc liked it, because he played against them when he was at UCLA. He was like, ‘Man, that school is for bigs,’ that I’m going to develop over there, they get bigs to the NBA.”"

But Hakeem never said quit, so Joel Embiid never did.

Next: Wunderkind

He’s a Kansas wunderkind

How do you turn a raw nearly 7′ basketball prospect into a basketball star? You don’t. He does it for you, as described in this Sporting News interview by Mike DeCourcy on January 22, 2014:

"“He’s very, very, very bright, but I don’t think he’s caught up with what the world says. I told Joel as soon as he stepped foot on campus: You’re going to be the No. 1 pick. Now, I’m not saying it will be this year. I don’t think it should be a surprise to him, because he’s been told all along he is capable of doing this.” – Jayhawk coach Self after Embiid put up a near triple double against the Oklahoma State"

But you want it all now, do you? It will take time, a fact that Joel Embiid is very very aware of. Time heals. Time educates. Time becomes wisdom. Check out this interview from the same article:

"“It’s experience,” Embiid told Sporting News. “Even in high school, I wasn’t consistent. I would have games where I’d have 20 and 15, and the next game I’d have 5 and 5. I need to get that consistency. I think I’ll be good after that. I’m working. I think over the past couple games, I’ve been good overall, but some good halves of basketball and other ones that are bad. “I think it’s just me. When I come to the game, I have to have the mindset: I want to do this. I’ve got to block that many shots, get that many steals. In my mind, I’ve got to be like, ‘No one can stop me.’ ”"

How can this be? How can a young man with virtually no basketball background be on the course to NBA stardom?

Next: Skyrocket in Flight

He skyrocketed at the NBA draft, despite injury

There was talk heading into the NBA draft.  Despite questions of a stress fracture in his back.  Despite questions of a fractured foot on a big man in basketball.   Despite questions of just one year of NCAA organized basketball.  Despite questions about the maturity of a young man just 19 years of age, international player who found himself a home in the US through the help of his friend and mentor, Luc Mbah A Moute.   Despite all these factors, there was talk about Joel Embiid being selected number one.

Two teams had the chance to select the potential franchise center, and passed him by.  So many teams had focused entirely on Andrew Wiggins.  In Philadelphia, that translated into the campaign “Winless For Wiggins”, the player many had hoped we might draft in the 2014 NBA draft.   Andrew Wiggins went first to the Cleveland Cavaliers – their third first pick in four consecutive NBA drafts.  Jabari Parker went second to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

At three, the Philadelphia 76ers chose Joel Embiid.  Sam Hinkie was more than just a general manager driven by  numbers and shot charts.  What he saw in the form of Joel Embiid on that draft board was the potential franchise player he coveted.  But to get there, he would need to place his own career at risk.

He did so willingly.

Daily Knicks

Knowing no Embiid for one year, and then two years, was worth it to the president and general manager who was likely the only NBA executive capable of delivering the true potential of Joel Embiid to the NBA.

Two years of rehab, international medical breakthroughs and expertise, mentoring from other NBA players who had gone through it, dedicated one on one attention from one of the founders of sports medicine Dr. David T. Martin, and repeated trips to Aspetar Sports Clinic to confirm progress and segue to the next level of training.

Hinkie gave Joel Embiid all he could, perhaps even his own career as an NBA executive.  Why?

Because he believes that Joel Embiid is THAT good.

Next: Matured and Coached

Matured and Coached

He’s matured, trained, and now is finishing his three year preparations for his NBA career.  To many, a young man who sits on the sidelines, heals his body, and remains active in NBA drills which strengthen his weakened systems, would not be much to get hyped about.

But this is no ordinary young man.

You see, not only is this 7’2″ 260 pound young Cameroon the perfect size and shape to play excellent NBA basketball, but he’s got a direct line from what he sees and hears to what his body can replicate on the NBA basketball court the next day.

He’s had three years to study NBA videos.  Speaking of which, you’ve been so very patient with me, let’s roll the video of Embiid to show you what I mean:

Well, that’s not right.  That’s the highlight video of Embiid for the 2014 NBA draft, but oh check out those sweet post finger rolls, defeating double teams, and then  the rim protection.  Sweet mercy.
If that was what he could do with just one year of college, I’m going to expect much better from the NBA version.

Next: Present Day Heroics

Present Day Heroics

Joel Embiid is more than just an NBA center.  Delivering two way – post offense and rim protecting defense, gives the Philadelphia 76ers somebody very special to build around.  The team needs a ball distributor (hello Ben Simmons) and some perimeter shooting (hello Dario Saric, Robert Covington, and off the bench Nik Stauskas, Isaiah Canaan).

It seems that the Philadelphia are true believers in the recent footage of Joel Embiid’s workouts.  The team is now rumored to be fielding offers on both Nerlens Noel and on Jahlil Okafor.   What could deliver the team to consider trading two first round centers, typically one of the most diffiult positions to fill?

Philadelphia is a city where legends of the NBA have been born.  From the early days of Wilt Chamberlain through Dr. J, Chocolate Thunder, Moses Malone, Allen Iverson, the city has always had a basketball player whose style on the court was equaled by his presence of the court.

That role has gone vacant , until now.  I’ll place my feet back on the ground tomorrow, but for today, this moment,  I want to relish the optimism that Joel Embiid is bringing to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Tomorrow, he will need to earn this reverence.  But to give him credit, he has won over the hearts of virtually everyone associated with the  Philadelphia 76ers – including a very pessimistic fan base.

Next: NBA Draft Scouting Report: Brice Johnson

If you are looking for a miracle out of this young man, I think you are standing in it.