76ers Fans Get MAJOR Joel Embiid UPDATE From ESPN

76ers Fans Get MAJOR Joel Embiid UPDATE From ESPN

[Music] There’s a strong argument to be made that this is the most important off season of Joel Embiid’s career. and he admitted as much in a recent article with ESPN where he really opened up the most I’ve ever seen Joel Embiid open up in the media in regards to his career and his personal life as well and the injuries he’s been dealing with really his entire career but especially the last couple of years. Joel Embiid touched on his recovery and what the plans are this off season for his injury heading into next year. A lot to cover here on today’s show, we’re going to go through some of what Joel Embiid had to say in this recent ESPN article. But real quick before we do, I want to give a huge, huge shout out to this tremendous, tremendous article that was put up yesterday on ESPN. A deep dive into really everything Joel Embiid from Doen Aquainte. I hope I’m saying that name correctly because what a fantastic fantastic piece this was to read. I really encourage you to go check this out. It’s titled you see at the top Joel Embiid Sees You. And it’s long, but again I really encourage you take the time go through it because we’re not going to go through even close to everything mentioned in this article. We’re going to go through some of the important stuff, some of the big injury stuff, especially that pertains to this season and the past couple of seasons, but a lot of really personal things that Joel Embiid went into his whole entire career with the 76ers, even before he was drafted by Philadelphia. It’s just an indepth look really into the story of Joel Embiid up to this point. So, if you are a Sixers fan and a Joel Embiid fan, even if you don’t like Joel Embiid as a Sixers fan, I really do encourage you to check this article out because it’s got some really, really great stuff that we don’t usually hear too often from Joel Embiid. Now, really quick before we get into the injury stuff, I just want to have give, you know, my overall thoughts and takeaways from that article and that amazing amazing story. One, the Sixers organization really does look bad a lot of times throughout the entire story with how they managed Joel Beat’s injuries, specifically in the very very beginning of Joel Emb’s career when he missed those first couple of seasons. So, really not a great look uh for this Sixers organization. Uh it’s nice to see someone in this national media showing love to Joel Embiid as well just you know throughout the entire thing just going through everything Embiid has been through not just on the court with the injuries but like in his personal life as well, right? just finding out more about who he is at a as a person, what makes Joel Embiid the way that Joel Embiid is, right, and kind of explaining his side of the story because he he gets a lot of hate, right, on social media and some of it is deservedly so, but this is kind of his chance to respond a little bit in a way and tell his side of the story. So, again, just tremendous stuff, a lot of deep dives into the people that really helped him out uh throughout his career. So, let’s get into some of what he had to say, particularly with the injury that he’s been dealing with really since he got hurt against the Warriors back in the 23 24 season. Obviously, that playoff run against the New York Knicks. We’ll get into some of what he had to explain regarding that injury in that series with the Bells policy as well. And then this past season which was an absolute disaster. Embiid barely playing of course up until now with where the direction sort of is with Embiid and his injury recovery. Let’s start and let’s begin with this off seasonason for Joel Embiid because as Doten Aquente had to say Embiid said this is the most important offseason of his career. Here is part of that excerpt. After surgery to repair his meniscus in February 2024, Abid spent the 24-25 season either recovering from or playing through pain. Played just 19 games and looked like himself in only a fraction of those. Now he’s in the middle of what he’s rightly calling the most important off season of his life. Rebuilding his body again, preparing to launch into what he hopes will be, if all goes well, his final chapter as an elite level player. It’s not hysterical to wonder about the end. We might be watching it. And if we are, what has Joel Embiid been? Look, this off season really is going to determine what the future of Joel Embiid’s career and how his career will be looked on. With all the injuries he’s had, the playoff disappointment, as dominant as he’s been on the floor, a lot of people don’t give him the credit he deserves. And his story, I don’t think accurately depicts the kind of player he has been. So, a very, very big offseason for Embiid now to get right and really prove everybody wrong this season with the Sixers. But if it all goes wrong, this really could be the end of Joel Embiid as an elite level player or at the very least Joel Embiid in Philadelphia as well. uh depending again on the injuries on the play and just how the relationship is as well between the organization and Joel Embiid because as was mentioned in this article multiple times relationship especially early on has not always been very great. So let’s talk about this injury and what Embiid had to say going all the way back to the 2023 2024 season and that first round series against the Knicks. Of course, Embiid had surgery after Jonathan Kaminga fell on his leg earlier that season, rushed back from that miniscus surgery, ended up playing at the end of the year for Philly. They got in the playoffs, beat the Heat in the playin, and then took the Knicks in the first round where, of course, they ultimately lost in six games. And Embiid dealing with a knee injury, dealing with Bell’s pausy, a lot worse than a lot of people thought. Even though we knew it was pretty bad out there, some of these details are just a little bit insane. So, here’s Embiid on that. Or here is what the ESPN story had to say regarding Embiid during that Nick series. He had been diagnosed with Bell’s palsy just days before the series started after which he began suffering migraines. He was short of fitness because of the knee injury, visibly limping, worried about the integrity of his grotesqually swollen knee, enduring nearly roundthe-clock treatment, and forced to play heavy minutes in the most critical games of the season. His vision was blurry. His head was aching. He was hardly sleeping because his left eye wouldn’t close. Embiid doesn’t know how he managed to keep playing. Drew Hedlin, his trainer, would ask him after every game if he was going to keep going. And Embiid would say, “No, there is no chance.” Hardly anyone knew how bad it was. Information about him is at a premium in the best of times. In a crisis, he closes himself off. Embiid was alone in his agony. People don’t really know what’s what. They think it’s his knee, but it’s not just the knee. It’s the knee. It’s the eye. It’s the whole system. Embiid was really, really going through it in that series against the Knicks. And it’s because he rushed back from that injury, but then he also had the Bells pausy, man. And just I felt bad for him watching that series, you know, because he was still so dominant, right? And he still put up over 30 points a game against the New York Knicks in that first round series. But you could tell, man, like as he was playing, he just didn’t quite have it fully. despite that still put up huge numbers. So, look, it was a struggle, man. And that was just kind of the beginning of what’s been a really, really tough, you know, past couple of seasons, really almost year and a half at this point, uh, since that injury that he suffered against the Golden State Warriors. In fact, Nick Batum, obviously not in the Sixers anymore, but Nick Batum was with Philadelphia in that series against the Knicks back in 23-24, diverged some details that we didn’t really know about Embiid’s injury. This is what Batum had to say. I was sitting next to him in the locker room. I saw his knee before every game after every game. I saw his knee. I have no idea how he could even walk. And be could barely walk and he’s out there putting up over 30 points a game in the playoffs against the New York Knicks. People still want to disrespect him and his playoff career and yeah, never reach a conference finals. Has certainly choked in certain moments, but his playoff stats are up there with some of the best players in the NBA. his playoff plus minus up there with some of the best players in NBA history and always playing injured, always playing through stuff at Sex cuz if he doesn’t play through it, people will call him soft. So he doesn’t want to be out there for his team. If he plays through it and doesn’t play quite as well, no one’s going to point to the injury, they’re just going to say he was choking. So it’s kind of a a tough two-way street there that Embiid had to deal with really his entire entire career. More on Embiid against the Knicks. The S the Sixers lost a series in six games. and beat average despite all this 33 points, 10.8 rebounds, 5.7 assists. He had nothing left though late in games when the adrenaline wore off and the pain took hold. And Bead says, “I I knew I only had about two quarters. My body was just like, nope, that’s it. There was nothing I could do. I shot probably like 10% in the fourth quarter.” And you go back to those games and be pretty bad in the fourth quarter of those games. But again, with everything he was going through, I mean, he kind of knew he had no shot of lasting an entire 48 minutes, four quarters of the basketball game. First half, he could go out there, he could play well, but the body was just breaking down. The body was just failing him. And again, just so unfortunate because think about what the numbers could have been if Embiid was healthy. I think that team was built in a way where they could have gone pretty far in the playoffs if they had a fully healthy squad. Of course, remember like the Tyrese Maxi shot against the Knicks um that near half quarter sending that game to overtime like that team I think could have done something special unfortunately. Uh it did not work out that way. So the Sixers lose that series. Then Embiid ends up playing in the Olympics for team USA and was met with a lot of criticism because he also got an extension around this time. That decision by Daryl my to extend Embiid also came with a lot of criticism because of Joel Embiid’s injury history. How are you going to commit longterm to Embiid when we don’t even know he’s going to be healthy and then he goes out there and plays in the Olympics which a lot of people think made the injuries worse and was the reason he was not ready for the start of the season. Here’s a little bit from ESPN on Embiid playing with Team USA that summer. When Embiid reported to camp for Team USA in early July, he was not at his best, according to Grant Hill, of course, running Team USA basketball. But we are patient. We knew we needed him, said Grant Hill. He had been working daily with Hanland and Kaspari, two of his trainers by his side in the weeks leading up to camp. By the time Team USA was in France preparing for its first match of the group stage against Serbia, Gran Hill says Embiid was quote the best player on the floor. But he promptly got sick, really sick. His trainer says nobody really knows just how sick he got in the rain at the opening ceremonies traveling from Paris to LA apart from the rest of the team. He played wanely against Serbia in the first game of the Robin round or the round robin, excuse me. sat out the next game on orders from team doctors and Embiid talked about his play and his movement with team USA and Embiid said compare the way I was moving to in the Olympics the way I was moving against New York and Bead says it did not set him back saying that it had nothing to do with the reason that he missed time to start the beginning of the 2024 2025 season. His trainer, Kaspar, says he was okay to get his contract. He was okay to win a gold medal. We were okay, saying that the injuries weren’t really that big of a deal. So, look, I I want to say the injury did not get worse with him playing in the Olympics, and who knows if it really did or not. It’s certainly not a good look, right, when you consider what happened at the start of last season. Do I blame him, though, for playing in the Olympics? I really don’t. Some people don’t like that idea and they might think it’s selfish that he went out there and and played for a team that really didn’t need him out there honestly even though he did have some big big games in that Olympic run. They probably don’t win that gold medal honestly if it wasn’t for mainly Steph Curry but also Joel Embiid right so I don’t blame him for wanting to go out there and win a gold medal in the Olympics. I mean are you kidding me? How many chances do you have to become an Olympic gold medalist? So people will hate on the decision, say he should have been thinking of the team of the Sixers. Look, he he’s put in so much for this team over the years. I do not blame blame him at all. And he’s saying that it didn’t affect it. Him playing the Olympics affecting the knee injury. Uh I’m honestly not 100% sure about that. And be talking a little bit further and a little bit more information on his knee injury then as we get into the 2024 25 season. And as you might remember, later on in the year towards the end of when B got shut down for good, he came out and basically told ESPN like, I need surgery on this knee. And the Sixers weren’t really on the same page. And this kind of goes back to what a lot of the article from ESPN here was talking about as well early on in his career that the Sixers and Embiid didn’t really have great communication when it came to the injuries. and B didn’t really trust this Sixers front office as when he missed his first season with the foot injury, he thought it wasn’t healing properly, but to him it seemed the Sixers were trying to push him to be out there on the floor. Ultimately, he ended up missing another year because I did find out, yeah, it wasn’t being rehabbed properly, but there was just a lot of dysfunction and a lot of mistrust between Joel Embiid and between this Sixers regime. And it kind of brought back up some old memories from early on in his career. The uncertainty about his knee, again, this is this season, reignited old tensions between Embiid and the Sixers front office. After months of uncertainty, false starts, and recurrent swelling, Embiid couldn’t take it anymore. In February, before a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, Embiid told ESPN’s Salters that he would need another surgery, which reportedly surprised the organization. Darren my acknowledged that surprise in our meeting. If you don’t want to listen to me, Embiid said, then I have to find something else to make sure that I’m going to be listened to. When I told Lisa that, I think it was a cry for help. It feels like everybody refuses to acknowledge what’s actually going on. I think this has been a major major problem for this sixers organization really since the start of Embiid’s tenure. And it kind of carries across different regimes, right? Because of course, you know, Daryl my for example wants Embiid to be out there to kind of save his job in a way to make sure that they’re winning games. He wants a star player out there. So, he’s going to push for whatever ways to get him out in the floor, but a lot of times that’s caused further injuries or just Embiid not healing at the level that he’s needed to. And so, Embiid kind of had enough. He was like, I need the surgery, dude. Like, at some point, I can’t just be out here risking my body because I’m not going to be 100%. And if I’m not out there at 100%, what’s the point, right? So, I get where Embiid’s coming from in this instance, and I get it could be frustrating. Some people might say, “Well, he’s a professional athlete. He’s getting paid millions of dollars. Just play through the injuries.” He’s played through the injuries his entire career. Got to do what’s best for the team, right? And some people might say what’s best for the team is having a beat out there. I think what’s best for the team is having a beat out there at 100%. And if that is him getting the surgery and sitting at the back half of the season and hopefully taking this off seasonason to get healthy, then that’s a path they got to go with. It doesn’t always have to be doing whatever you can to get back on the floor as quickly as possible. Sometimes it’s taking the smart route, right? And being able to have that foresight to know this is what I got to do to get myself back out there on the floor. Joel beat though feels pretty positive about the direction that this is all going in. And bead said, “It’s going to work out. I believe in myself. Believe in God. It’s all about doing the right things. It’s going to pay off. There’s no question of it if it doesn’t work out. Obviously feeling pretty confident that he’ll be able to recover, be able to come back. I don’t know if I share that same optimism because of what we’ve seen from Embiid and his health over the course of his career. It’s not his fault, per se. It’s just the way it is and it’s unfortunate. It sucks. It’s unlucky. I hate it for him and I feel bad for Embiid. I really, really do. But it’s tough for me to share the same optimism. I kind of love it though, man. You know, have that belief that that it’s going to work. You’re going to be back out there. That’s the only mentality you can really have. You can’t be out there saying, “Man, this is never gonna get better.” Because he’s had that mentality earlier in his career where he’s like, “Woe is me.” Kind of. I I like that he’s out of here thinking like, “No, let’s get this turned around. We can do this.” Even if it might be a little bit of wishful thinking. So, this brings us to the present day. Embiid’s current recovery from that surgery. How is he doing? Will he be ready for the start of the season? According to Embiid himself, it doesn’t really sound like it. This is what Joelle had to say regarding this off seasonason and his recovery. We’re not going to push anything. For my whole career, I felt like we never took that approach. We don’t we don’t have a timeline right now. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I don’t know how the organization feels. This is talking about the organization, the Sixers. Now, the only thing I’d say is this is a business. It’s all about the results. If I come back early enough and I’m still not myself, guess what? You’re not winning any games. This is what I was saying earlier. There’s no point in rushing him back at this point. You need him back there at full strength. And this kind of goes back too to that disconnect between Embiid and the organization. I’m sure if you’re up to the organization, they’d have him out there sooner rather than later. But I’m glad Embiid now is finally starting to take things a little bit smarter because part of it’s on him too, right? It’s not just the organization in the past has forced him to play. Embiid has also pushed himself. He’s a competitor, right? He wants to be out there on the floor. But at this point, man, with all the injury history now really piling up, you have to just take a step back and say, “Let me get fully healthy. If I’m not 100%, I’m not helping my team. I might think I’m helping my team by being out there on the floor. But if I can’t be the player that I know I can be, then it’s really no help at all.” But that does mean we might not be seeing Joel Embiid at the start of this season by the sound of things. So, who knows when we might first see Joel Embiid this season. Maybe we’ll get an official kind of report or something sometime coming soon, but I trust what I’m hearing from Abid here that they’re going to take things slow. They’re going to let things simmer. So, that’s kind of where we’re at right now is seems to be doing pretty decently in his recovery, but really no expectations as of right now for when he could be back. And uh hopefully he doesn’t last too too long because at the same same time when he’s not out there, it seems probably not going to win a whole lot of games. We just got to see him at 100%. So when that happens does remain to be seen. A couple other interesting tidbits from the article. Uh first if you remember back to the start of the 2024 2025 season started 2 and 11 had that players only meeting right where it got leaked that Tyrese Maxi called out Joel Embiid for not being the greatest leader being late to meetings and practices uh and just kind of setting a bad example with his his overall vibes as a whole. Right? that ended up getting leaked because a player leaked that to the media. Who is that player? Joel Embiid thinks he knows who it is, but he’s not going to reveal it right now. This is what I’m to say regarding that leaked meeting. Yeah, I know who leaked it, but look, the past is the past. The one thing I’ll say is it’s hard being around people that do that sort of stuff. That goes back to the trust thing. Once you cross that, you can’t expect me to be a part of a team meeting again. They’re just not. That’s just not going to happen. There’s a chance they’re still around. So, and be is saying here there is a chance and and this was kind of a back and forth uh between Embiid and ESPN here saying that kind of pressing Embiid a little bit was uh Doan Akintoyier saying who was it like you got to know, right? Who’s the one that leaked this meeting? is he still on the team? He was like, “It’s free agency, man.” Like, you know who’s on the roster, you know who’s not. Embiid kind of was playing Koi. Uh but Embiid basically saying like, “Yeah, there’s a chance he’s still on the team.” So, it sounds like the player who leaked that meeting is still on the Sixers roster. There’s been some speculation on Sixers Twitter and on Reddit and stuff that it was Eric Gordon. Uh which look, I’m not going to say if I think it was a certain player or not because it would just be pure speculation, right? But Eric Gordon, you know, I guess it kind of makes some sense. Um, does sound like the player though is still on the team. So that kind of clears like Reggie Jackson who ended up getting traded. Uh, KJ Martin who ended up getting traded. Uh, Gresianelli who of course isn’t returning. So won’t be any of those guys, but very well could have been like a Kyle Lowry and Eric Gordon. I doubt it was someone like a Paul George, but Embiid kind of saying like, man, it’s hard to play with someone who who does stuff like that. So just always some kind of tensions uh in this 76ers locker room at all times. Uh I thought this from be was interesting too. He was asked about his tenure his entire career with the 76ers and be was like man they got to make a show on this cuz it is just absolutely crazy. The drama Sam Hanky being kicked out bringing in the Kangelos. It’s been a lot of things that have happened and that’s what I’m talking about when I’m talking about continuity. It starts at the top. I hope one day someone makes a show or whatever, writes a book about it. We went from GMs having burner accounts and we we had great guys when we drafted, but then again, stuff happened that no one could ever figure out. It really has been a roller coaster of a Sixers career for Jerel Embiid. And you have to wonder if he was drafted to a different organization, would he be an NBA champion by now? because the things he’s had to deal with playing for the Sixers organization since he was drafted. Not a lot of other NBA stars and NBA players can say they’ve had to deal with some of these same things. Some of some of it is on Joel Embiid. Of course, again, he’s not devoid of blame in all of this, right? He is partly to blame for some of these actions and all this, but it is just kind of crazy everything he’s had to deal with. One last thing I I thought was interesting. Uh, apparently Joel Embiid and James Harden not on good terms anymore. No one knows this, says Embiid. But even James Harden is not talking to me. That’s the point I don’t like about being that guy because it puts you in the middle of those situations because if you ask James, he probably believes I had something to do with him not being here. We know that was probably mostly Daryl my not wanting to commit long-term money to James Harden. And I’m just like, I won the scoring title. You won the assist title. We had a pick in a world that was unstoppable. It just hurts when you feel like you haven’t done anything wrong. When you think you have a relationship like that with somebody, you lose a lot. And that was a big theme as well. Again, I encourage you go check out and read the full article, but a big theme as well in this article from Doan Akintoy was Embiids kind of felt, you know, like it’s difficult for him to to make real connections with people and and truly like open up to his friends and and to those around him. He doesn’t have a lot of trust for people, right? Again, I’m not going to get too much into the personal stuff because I want you to go and check out the article, but uh a truly great look into his his personal side of things and that whole aspect of Joel Embiid’s career. I’ll end off with this real quick before we get out of here. I just I want Joel Embiid to be remembered in the correct way, right? And I know everything that’s gone on with his whole career, the playoff disappointments, the injuries, like people don’t like Joel Embiid and they’re not going to respect Joel Embiid. And I can’t change people’s minds unless he went to title. He can’t really change people’s minds. It kind of just is what it is at this point. But I just want people to to kind of realize, you know, everything he’s gone through as a person. And that’s why I want you again to go check out this article. everything he’s gone through as a person, everything he’s been through in his basketball career, in his personal life, dealing with a Sixers organization, it’s a whole lot more than even a lot of Sixers fans realize, but definitely more than just regular NBA fans realize. And I think if they knew that, you might look at Joelb in a in a little bit of a different light. Look, if you like him, if you don’t like him, that’s not for me to decide. That’s for you to decide. But I encourage you, you know, again, go check out the article and then, you know, make your own opinions, make your own assumptions. Um, I’m going to stand up for my guy Joel Embiid, man, because he he drugg this Sixers team out of the dirt when he got here and gave us a lot of good moments. Sure, don’t have a title yet up to this point and and tough to say that they will with him as their best player. Uh, but just want to make sure he he gets the love, he gets the respect he deserves as he does near the end of his career and possibly the end of his time in Philadelphia. What say you kind of to put a bow on all this? Can Joel Embiid still lead this team to a championship? Give me a simple yes or no down in the comments section. Let me know what you think. And guys, be sure to hit that sub button. I know this is a little bit of a longer one here today, but again, just some amazing amazing information that we got on Joel Embiid. I didn’t even cover close to half of it, right? So, I really wanted to dive into all of that and relay that information to you guys. That’s why you subscribe to the channel, man. The best Sixers coverage you can find right here on YouTube. Hit that sub button. We’re trying to hit 24,000 subscribers before the end of July. So, sub, join us, and we’ll see you next time right here on 76ers Now.

Philadelphia 76ers news on Joel Embiid from ESPN headlines today’s Sixers news & rumors video. Dotun Akintoye of ESPN released a new Joel Embiid news story, deep diving into Joel Embiid’s life on and off the court. Joel Embiid injury news is at the front and center of the article, as Joel Embiid revealed new details regarding his knee injuries heading into the 2025-26 NBA season. Jake Chipper reacts to the latest Sixers news & rumors around Joel Embiid on today’s Philadelphia 76ers YouTube video!

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Dotun Akintoye on Joel Embiid’s offseason:
“After surgery to repair his meniscus in February 2024, Embiid spent the 2024-25 season either recovering from or playing through pain. He played just 19 games and looked like himself in only a fraction of those. Now, he’s in the middle of what he’s rightly calling the “most important” offseason of his life rebuilding his body again, preparing to launch into what he hopes will be, if all goes well, his final chapter as an elite-level player. It’s not hysterical to wonder about the end — we might be watching it. And if we are, then what has Joel Embiid been?”

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Joel Embiid on his injury:
“We’re not going to push anything. For my whole career, I felt like we never took that approach. We don’t have a timeline. Hopefully, sooner rather than later. I don’t know how they feel. The only thing I’d say is — this is a business. It’s all about the results. … If I come back early enough and I’m still not myself, guess what? You’re not winning any games.”

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