It’s been an epic journey. Lesser players would have given up long ago. Lesser general managers would have walked away. Both stood their ground. Now it’s up to Philadelphia. Are you ready for Joel Embiid‘s NBA debut?
This has taken on a story of legend already. Before he ever steps foot onto a basketball court, the sheer fact that Joel Embiid is about to debut for the Philadelphia 76ers this season is the embodiment of virtually every principal that comprised the #TrustTheProcess phenomenon under Philadelphia 76ers former president Sam Hinkie.
#TrustTheProcess pic.twitter.com/Nc1v602YSf
— Joel “Troel” Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) July 23, 2016
Is the city of Philadelphia ready for the debut?
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We’ve read the stories. The young man from Cameroon was enticed to the game of basketball by a video of NBA player highlights. Not only did he discover his passion from watching a video, but he discovered that he had a knack for emulating the moves he saw from a video in his own play afterwards.
We followed day by day as the young man was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers as the third player chosen in the 2014 NBA Draft. We followed the two year timeline of his recovery, setback, surgery, and recovery. We followed the path of this young man as though he was a sibling, a member of our family, a young man whose infectious laugh and snarky quips on social media have endeared us to him permanently.
The #3 Pick from the 2014 draft is gonna be ready too... Let's get it
— Joel “Troel” Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) May 18, 2016
So few athletes truly understand what it means, and takes, to succeed in the city of Philadelphia. The city is more than just another blue collar town. It’s a city filled with hopeless romantics – a city whose fans are eager to place their professional sports icons on a pedestal as larger than life personna. But that comes with a price. It’s a spot that is not a legacy, a blue blooded nobility that comes without question or price tag. It’s a spot that immediately becomes a level of homage that must be earned.
But somehow, I think Joel Embiid is up to the task.
Next: Tough Love
Tough Love
The fans of Philadelphia professional sports are an enigma to many professional athletes. Philadelphia fans are passionate and intelligent. That combination gives cause to cheer louder at highlights, but immediately boo with lackadaisical play. That passion is described in this video clip of Allen Iverson talking with his fans:
Philadelphia is a city of tough love. It’s a city that rides the arse of a player who takes a casual approach to a game on each and every play. The city demands the utmost of efforts, because it offers the utmost of support for the players who manage to meet that level. The words of Allen Iverson bring this home in an article by Matt Mullin of PhillyVoice.com:
"“It’s a great feeling because these people right here get to walk around and say they’re Hall of Famers,” Iverson said, pointing to the fans walking around the Sixers Draft Party on Eakins Oval Thursday evening. These people — and my family, my girl, my kids — they get to stick their chest out and say they’re Hall of Famers, because, without them, it wouldn’t have happened. I honestly think it’s a tribute to all the people who helped that [dream] come true — and I would say the critics as well,” the 41-year-old said. “If I didn’t want to prove them wrong, it wouldn’t have been possible. Those 20,000 people in that arena, without them, Allen Iverson is not a Hall of Famer. So they should walk around with their chest out knowing that they’re a Hall of Famer because they helped create one.”"
It’s that quality of feeding off the energy of the fans that gives athletes a true appreciation for the city.
He followed up comments with a second interview with Mullin about words he shared with the number one pick Ben Simmons, but the words are true of any player who don the Philadelphia 76ers jersey, and immediately are swept into the pressure of producing for a team and a city that has known excellent basketball.
"Listen, you want that type of pressure,” Iverson said. “To know that these fans are so passionate — you want passionate fans. You want somebody to come and root for you and wish the best for you. All you’ve got to do is play every game like it’s your last. That’s all you can do is give effort. Shots aren’t going to go in every night. Some nights you might get in foul trouble. Those things are going to happen. “But Philly fans don’t give a damn about that. They just want to see maximum effort. And I’m pretty sure that’s what [Simmons] is going to come with. He’s been fighting all his life to get to this point; you thing he’s going to slow down now? No way.”"
It’s a tough love town, and the players who show up either feast on that love, or get swept away by it.
Next: Too Big To Fail
Too Big To Fail
When he was drafted, he was marked at 7-foot-0 and weighed in at 250 pounds. At last count, he has grown to at least 7-foot-2 inches and weighs approximately 270 pounds. He is ripped and athletic.
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But even more so, he’s healthier than he’s ever been before and he’s been trained in the proper way to use his incredible leverage and strength to avoid future injuries. The only question mark is whether he can take the pounding of the NBA post game.
If you have been a reader, you know we’ve done our best to cover the ins and outs of Joel Embiid.
Joel Embiid Surgery Update III
For a player who has never set foot on the basketball court, we know him as well if not better than virtually any other player. His is personable, approachable, and as down to earth as any young man who finds himself in the NBA. He laughs loud and long, but can buckle down and extract the full content of training like it’s the last cup of coffee from the pot.
He’s more than just a tall body. He has that essence of achievement in him, that commitment to excel, but the humility to await the lauding until he has earned the praise on the basketball court. That is the player Sam Hinkie, a strategist who thought nothing of parting ways with players whose perceived value exceeded his own estimations, poured countless hours supporting and fixing, essentially hiring the brightest mind in the field of sports medicine to oversee in Dr. David T. Martin, and flew countless miles back and forth from Aspetar Clinic in Qatar to ensure his future center would be healthy.
In the end, Joel Embiid is too big to fail, and Hinkie ensured he would not.
Next: How long a Journey
How Long a Journey
It’s tough to frame this in the right perspective without triggering some nay-saying, but the reality is that Joel Embiid was the top rated prospect of the 2014 NBA draft before his injury. That injury and the concerns of both back and foot injury to a 7-foot plus prospect scared off NBA teams, except for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Now, some two years later, that first pick reputation is on trial, as Joel Embiid is knocking down the medical hurdles to play this season like a bowling ball upends pins in a strike. But this has not been a journey without its toll.
During his rehabilitation, Joel Embiid watched as his team won just 28 of 162 games without him. He carries the burden of knowing that the man who had enough faith in him as to select him despite concerns over his health, and invest two years of painstaking rehabilitation, lost his job just as the player emerged on track to play this season. He watched the team draft and play young men, desperate for leadership which a player like Embiid could offer, wander through the 2015-2016 season searching for an NBA identity. And he’s heard the detractors, the trolls on social media, taunt him at the fact that he’s only now becoming healthy enough to play.
Joel Embiid's highest scoring totals against each team in the NBA! 💯🔥 pic.twitter.com/64RLgQy8w9
— NBA SKITS (@NBA_Skits) May 11, 2016
And with each weight that has been piled upon the young man, he has stood just a little taller. With each challenge, Joel Embiid has answered in the only way available to him – he’s shown a lot in practice videos:
And so we are eager to see if the young man has been worth the investment of time, energy, resources, and emotion.
Next: Open to Suggestions
Open to Suggestions
Sixer Sense’s Josh Wilson had an excellent article of Joel Embiid recent revelations – where he opens up about his NBA journey so far. If you are eager to get a glimpse into the player, this is a must read. Not only does Josh cover the side of Embiid we all are intrigued with – his motivation through the two plus year journey of getting to the NBA basketball court, but he does so with a video from Vice Sports.
Hoops Habit
It’s virtually impossible to not cheer for Embiid this year by watching this expose. This is a great article and great and entertaining video.
The young man is already a personna – a young man who loves to entertain and to excel. Failure has historically driven him to work even harder. But failure is not a common occurance. Embiid exposes his concerns early in basketball to not measuring up, but placing stock in the grind of training and working to improve. So far, that has not only gotten him noticed, but placed him in the upper echelons of raw NBA talent.
Embiid is a standout in statistical measures. In fact, in the measure of basketball plus minus index, he is one of the highest ever measured. We covered how the Philadelphia 76ers will witness the debut of the third and fourth highest BPM measures this season in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. Curiously, the higher BPM score belongs to Embiid.
Is this all enough to guarantee success? No, and especially no for a one-foot-on-the-ground-town like Philadelphia. But on the same note, this is a city whose past has been filled with greats from the NBA before, and this could be the first time that two such gifted players arrive to the team simultaneously.
The struggle in Philadelphia NBA history has always been the center spot. It took Moses Malone to arrive to carry Julius Erving and company through the NBA championship. It took Dikembe Mutombo to carry Allen Iverson to the NBA championship. With all the accolades of Ben Simmons, Dario Saric, and others on the team, it may very likely depend upon Joel Embiid to carry this team to the NBA championship.
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Is Philadelphia ready? Much like the game of hide and seek, ready-or-not here he comes.