Looking at Joel Embiid’s 5 Best Instagram Posts

Philadelphia 76ers‘ rookie center Joel Embiid has been particularly captivating on the court this year, but his Instagram antics may be even more entertaining.

Joel Embiid, after two long seasons of waiting, finally made his debut for the Philadelphia 76ers this season. His first two seasons in the NBA were spent nursing a foot injury, and some fans even began to doubt that he would ever be healthy enough to play a single game.

With the doubts around him flying, Embiid tackled this year with assertiveness. Right out of the gate he showed us that two years off doesn’t have to be looked at as a disadvantage for a player, but instead, can be looked at as a time to refine a skill set.

In his first weeks of games, Embiid was hitting a significant amount of 3-pointers from beyond the arc, at one point shooting over one 3-pointer per game while making over 50 percent of his attempts. All the while, Embiid did not let his huge frame go to waste. Embiid dominated in the paint, often taking on the league’s best defensive big men and putting them in their place.

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It was clear right from the start that if Embiid could stay healthy, he would be a force to be reckoned with.

All while he was doing incredible things on the floor, Embiid was also noticeably captivating off of the floor as well. Embiid used social media to his advantage to win over the hearts of the fans this year, often demonstrating his incredible sense of humor on Instagram and Twitter.

Embiid was known for utilizing the location feature of Instagram to be funny, and also putting some of his competition on blast after won games. While he needs to perform on the court, his off-court presence has been made by social media.

Throughout the course of the season there have been tons of Instagram posts from Embiid. Let’s look at some of the top ones.

While this isn’t a definitive list, and other people may enjoy some of his other Instagram posts more than what I deemed the top five, we can all agree — he’s funny. Be sure to view Joel’s entire Instagram page to see all that he had to offer.

Honorable mentions

There were so many good posts to sift through from the year to bring up just five. Here are a few of the honorable mentions that came up throughout the year.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQreD3CFWtt/

This one is a bit confusing. I was pretty sure Michael Jordan‘s nickname isn’t “The Process,” but I guess I could have been mistaken.

M. Night Shyamalan became a huge Sixers fan this season after he rang the Liberty Bell pregame one night. His film Split took the country by storm this year, and after its release he began coming to more games and building the Sixers’ court-side celebrity presence (along with Meek Mill and Kevin Hart). Shyamalan brought Bryan Cranston, the actor who played Walter White in Breaking Bad to a game, and Embiid took a liking to him.

There might be a new cook in Albuquerque this summer. Embiid will have some time off as he recovers from his injury to pick up a new hobby, after all.

Throughout Joel Embiid’s All-Star campaign, there were a few huge endorsements (Sam Hinkie was one of them) on Twitter for the big fella. One of the most significant was from professional wrestler, Triple H. He put his word out to his followers that they should vote for The Process:

Following that, Embiid made his entrance to a game with the classic Triple H water spit, something that showed just how incredible Embiid was as far as being an entertainer as a player.

Triple H criticized the spit, but gave him some more votes in the process (no pun intended).

One of the saddest parts of this season was Joel Embiid being announced as out for the season because of a hold-back from a slightly torn meniscus. The injury was initially reported as a bone bruise, and the team later discovered the meniscus was part of the trouble.

While the team aimed to get him back on the floor at some point, they later realized the tear was worse than initially thought. While most fans wallowed in their tears, reverted to their process caves, and re-built their Hinkie shrines, Embiid turned to Instagram.

While we were struggling with the news, Embiid gave us some relief. His Instagram location was “Meniscus.” He told us the process was postponed for a “minor setback.”

Many of us were struggling with this news of his injury, and things like this make it all better.

Embiid’s utilization of the “Playoffs” location was fun as the Sixers went on their January tear, and the eighth overall seed seemed actually attainable.

Embiid posted this picture, captured by a Sixers photographer, after McConnell showed off the ice in his veins against the New York Knicks. McConnell sprinted down the court with the time running down on the clock, put Carmelo Anthony in a spin cycle to the short left of the hoop, and put up a short jumper at the buzzer to win the game.

Calling out #KnicksTape might be my favorite part of this post. But Embiid calling McConnell his adopted son is pretty cool too.

Peep the photo location on this one. That is all.

If those are the honorable mentions, are you ready for these top five?

This video was captured at the Sixers Beach Bash in New Jersey prior to the team starting their season. Embiid and Simmons were the two players that the team brought to show off to the fans, and some lucky fans got to get on the beach court and play with Embiid.

Embiid wasn’t going to let up just because they’re kids, though.

This kid probably thought he had it easy. In his Ben Simmons jersey, he thought he could easily cross up the huge big man and put up an easy shot. Heck, this guy isn’t even playing defense!

Embiid hustles the kid, laying off for the fancy cross-over, but leverages his stature and blocks the kid’s shot so hard that the ball probably almost popped when it hit the ground.

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Disrespectful? Maybe. Competitive? Absolutely.

Looking back at this post in retrospect, we should have known Embiid was going to be a defensive beast this season. I mean, this kid probably wasn’t the best measure for NBA skill, but he must have been close enough, because some of Embiid’s defensive plays don’t look that far off from what happened here.

As for the kid? He either gave up on basketball altogether after this, or used the terror to motivate himself to become better. If that’s the case, let’s hope he gets drafted by the Lakers in 2029 to see Embiid do this to him in the NBA Finals.

This next post happened just a little while ago, on the day of the NBA Trade Deadline. The Sixers were going to make a move, that much was made clear leading up to the deadline. They had a significant logjam created at the center position by Nerlens Noel, Joel Embiid, and Jahlil Okafor. While all signs pointed towards Jah being traded, Noel was the man on the move by the end of the day.

The Sixers traded Noel to the Dallas Mavericks for Justin Anderson and a heavily protected first-round pick that will almost certainly convey into two second-round picks instead.

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Embiid and Noel had a discussion after practice when Noel found out he would be moving to Dallas to play for the Mavericks, but on Instagram, it was nothing but savagery from Embiid.

Embiid, who, at the time hoped he would be back during the season, sent his regards to Noel on Instagram in the form of a photo from training camp with Embiid murdering Noel in a poster dunk. It’s too bad we won’t be able to see Embiid do this in a game against Noel this season, because the two facing off against each other would have been really special to see.

Maybe next year, friends.

Third is this post from Embiid after a big win leading up to the closing of NBA All-Star voting.

If you don’t know the storyline of the All-Star voting, it was essentially this:

The NBA votes in three frontcourt players and two backcourt players to the All-Star game as starters based on three groups of voting: fans, players, and media. In the past, it’s been just fans who have voted, but this season the latter two groups were also included. Many saw that as unfair, and many also saw the fact that the NBA no longer recognizes the center as its own position as unfair.

Embiid would have been in the game if either a center was selected to the starting lineup, or if only the fan vote was regarded as it was in previous years. Plenty of good Twitter content came from that, including one Tweet where Embiid said, “once again, the popular vote didn’t matter.”

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This post, however, slipped past most. The location is what is important here, “Danielle’s.” Embiid was getting closer and closer to getting into the All-Star game, and over a year ago Embiid revealed that he was upset on the day of the NBA Draft not because the Sixers selected him, but because his celebrity crush told him she would give him a chance when he was an All-Star.

It’s speculated that the location is a reference to Canadian model Danielle Knudson. Embiid was not selected to the game as a starter or reserve, but ended up being injured through the All-Star break anyway.

If this was about Knudson, I hope she gave Embiid a shot anyway.

CSN caught a shot of her at a game and Embiid coming up to give her a (awkward) side hug after the game.

Another great moment from the season was documented on Embiid’s Instagram. The moment he risked seemingly everything for a loose ball that, in the grand scheme of things, was fairly worthless.

Embiid jumped into the stands feet first after this ball, stepped on a fan, and landed in between the front and second rows. Luckily, he was fine, as were all of the fans, but with the foot injury that kept him out of the first two seasons in the back of everyone’s minds, this certainly was not the best thing to see.

Once he got up and was fine, though, it was looked at as one of the best moments of the season. Him risking his body for a loose ball to put his team in the best possible situation to win was incredible, and shows just how much he has a drive to win.

Embiid breaks down everyone’s reaction from the crowd, but did get one things incorrect in saying that the guy in the red was trying to take a picture. Unless he has two phones on deck like Paul Pierce, he couldn’t have been taking a picture, because his phone is in his lap.

Still, what a cool picture, and what a cool moment. Embiid literally became one with the fans that night, both on the court and on Instagram.

A lot of people won’t have this Instagram photograph as high on their list as I do, but for me, this photo was special.

Hassan Whiteside, over the past few seasons in the NBA, has really established himself as a top-tier center in the NBA. Despite the fact that he doesn’t do much away from the rim, and that he can’t keep up with some of the new-age centers in the length of shooting ability, he is a really good center, and does make a case for how centers can still be effective today.

Whiteside makes his name with his defense, for the most part. There have been a few occasions where Whiteside has put up triple doubles with blocks. That’s pretty crazy, and for a center to not only be on top of his game on the defensive end with over 10 blocks in a single game, but also put up points and bring in rebounds makes the case for how a strong, back-to-the-basket center can still be effective.

He also pointed to how putting him up against a guy like Embiid can benefit him in some ways. Embiid wasn’t grabbing the rebounds on any of his missed 3-pointers because he was too far away from the rim. It does make some rebounding easier when Embiid is placing himself away from the hoop.

Still, in this meeting between the two players, Embiid and the Sixers won, so how much can Whiteside really say he was able to do?

After the game, Embiid put up this photo of him facing off with Whiteside. “BBQ chicken” as the location is the best part, by far, as he’s implying he’s about to cook (and did cook) Whiteside like a chicken.

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This was early on in the season, and only gave fans a preview for what was to come both on the court and on Instagram. For me, this was a favorite post of mine. Embiid had made his name and made a big-name center talk about him. I felt like this post and this game embodied the start of a big career for Embiid.