Philadelphia 76ers: Stop Holding Embiid and Saric Down for ROY Because of Redshirt

The Philadelphia 76ers front-runners for Rookie of the Year, Dario Saric and Joel Embiid, should not be looked down upon for redshirting.

The term redshirting is commonly used when discussing college athletics. The act of redshirting a freshman season is to defer the first year of college eligibility in sports in order to further refine a skill set and also to extend collegiate eligibility for one further season. Sometimes, redshirting can be done because of an injury.

The term redshirt is not commonly used in pro sports, but the makeup of the Philadelphia 76ers this season has caused it to become a bit more common. The Sixers have two incredible first-year players on their team in Dario Saric and Joel Embiid. Both “redshirted” their first two NBA eligible seasons.

With Embiid, he redshirted his first two seasons in the NBA not by choice, but because he had an injury that kept him out of competition. The team had to nurse his foot, and then found that they needed to have surgery on it again prior to what would have been his sophomore season.

More from The Sixer Sense

Saric, on the other hand, was a more intentional redshirt. The team allowed him to continue playing overseas while always planning to bring him over after some time developing away from the team. This was a more traditional redshirt when comparing it to the most common reason for redshirting a freshman college season.

Both of these players came into their NBA careers in similar places to other rookies that were drafted in the lottery. Had they played basketball at high levels before, and had they been regarded at some of the best young talent? Absolutely. Had they come in with little to no idea what to truly expect because they had never played in an NBA game before? Also yes.

Some people, however, are trying to take away from the stellar rookie seasons the pair have had. Some people are pointing to them redshirting their first two years of eligibility as a negative thing on their resume that must strike them from the running towards Rookie of the Year.

I’m sorry, what?

The argument is incredibly flawed, and in my opinion, invalid.

What the argument is

Those who say that Saric and Embiid have been given an unfair advantage because of their redshirt seasons point to the fact that they are older, and have been around pro sports for longer than other rookies. They say that their time to grow with pro coaches, to develop their skill sets and not think about other things such as class work allowed them to spend more time getting a quality jump start on their NBA careers.

In essence, the claim is that these players are not true rookies.

Dario Saric

Let’s start with Dario Saric. Yes, it is true that he has been playing pro sports for much longer than all of the traditional rookies coming out of college. That said, that doesn’t mean he had access to the same level of coaching and exposure to the NBA lifestyle that these players did.

A lot of these college players go to programs that have coaches that are there essentially to prep them for the NBA. They know what to tell them, how to tell them it, and what to do to set them up to get drafted high up in the NBA. Saric’s coaches, on the other hand, don’t know a lot of those things, and aren’t up to the quality of even some college coaches. So in a way, the coaching that some of the college prospects got was of a higher quality than what Saric got.

Must Read: Was Henderson a Good Signing for the Sixers?

Yes, Saric played in the pros, but European basketball is so much different than the NBA on a few different areas. The NBA is not only just better overall as far as skill level is concerned, but stylistically, things are very different between the two.

Saric, coming over from playing in Istanbul, Turkey, might have actually had a tougher transition than a lot of other rookies did because of the drastic change he had to make coming over from Europe. To say he is at an advantage simply because he played “pro basketball” is a wildly inaccurate statement that doesn’t take into account much context at all.

Joel Embiid

The argument with Joel Embiid is a bit more justified, but still wildly wrong. Here we have a player who came into his NBA career injured, and had to sit out for two full seasons because of said injury. Not only that, but Embiid didn’t even start playing basketball until he was a teenager. He was still very much in the early stages of his career when he was drafted third overall (and would have been drafted first if it wasn’t for his injury days before the draft).

The argument with Embiid being at an advantage because of those two years of redshirting is that Embiid was around NBA coaches, doctors, and players, and learning the lifestyle of an NBA player long before the rest of these rookies. The argument was that he didn’t have to spend his first few weeks and months learning how to travel well, learning how to deal with money, and all of the other things that come with being a pro athlete.

Must Read: Embiid's 5 Best Instagram Posts

These detractors are forgetting something — Embiid had a lifestyle change as well. Just because he didn’t go from books to the court doesn’t mean there wasn’t a shift for him to adjust to.

No longer was he going to practices and showing up pregame just to shoot flat-footed shots. No longer was he getting “theoretical” help. He had to put what he learned into real, live action. He wasn’t watching games on television or from a box anymore, he was watching them from the floor. He was in the game for the first time ever.

Additionally, people act as if the two years off for Embiid were all fine and dandy, and it was just a waiting game where he got to chill with friends and do nothing but prepare for basketball. Embiid’s recovery was rigorous, difficult, and certainly anything but easy. He had to fly all the way to Africa to go to Aspetar, a sport recovery clinic, more than once. He had to deal with the anxiety of wanting to be on the floor but being at the mercy of his body’s fragility.

NBA Draft: Mock Draft 3.0

Easy? This injury issue was anything but easy. He had just as much of a lifestyle change as other players coming into their first season. The two years off from him was looked at as something that would hold him back coming in. Fans assumed there would be major rust and major issues for him to work out as he adjusted to playing organized basketball for the first time in years.

Malcolm Brogdon

The runner-up to the Rookie of the Year award, after these two players, should be Malcolm Brogdon. He has done a really good job of being an integral part of the Milwaukee Bucks’ success.

That said, Brogdon also redshirted his sophomore year of college. While he didn’t get to spend that time with a pro team, he certainly could use that time to refine his skill set and nurse an injury, something very similar to what Embiid did.

Next: Sam Hinkie's Return Needs a Brett Brown Clone

The hypocrisy is real, and anyone will twist a story to make the Sixers look bad.

People Need to Stop Holding Redshirt Seasons Against Saric and Embiid for ROY

By Josh Wilson | Apr 2, 2017