The Joel Embiid Article Just Changed EVERYTHING For The Sixers…

The Joel Embiid Article Just Changed EVERYTHING For The Sixers…

It only takes one run to change the narrative. That is the theme of today’s discussion as we will react to the most important parts of the Joel Embiid article. I’m sure most of you have either seen it or read it at this point or maybe you just came here for the summarized version. Honestly, it’s like an entire book, so we can’t go through all of it. But there are some really important things in this piece regarding his mental battles, some of the relationships with the Sixers organization, some of the failures that we get a deeper dive into from the past couple of years, and in my opinion, the most important thing, Joel Embiid talks about his current injury and his status for the upcoming season. So, we’re going to talk about all that and more, but welcome in to Philly Take with RB. Look, man. I’m just going to say this before we jump right into it because we have a lot to get to. It should not take an article like this for people to have compassion about Joel Embiid. You may not like him as a person or the way he acts. You may not like his game or the way he deciphers things on the floor. You may not like anything about him as a basketball player. But maybe this will finally open some eyes and get people to realize that some of these guys go through a lot more than we see at surface level, especially off the floor. And I just think this piece was very eloquent, beautifully written, and I think it just gave us a deeper dive into not only Joel Embiid, but the way that other guys have to go through a ton of things that we never see. But first, I would like to give a shout out to the author of this article called Joel Embiid Sees You. By the way, very like I guess just strange kind of like cryptic haunting type of article here on ESPN. I’ve never heard of this writer. Uh Dotton Aintoy. He is an ESPN writer and he made a lot of new fans yesterday with this piece that is captivating the NBA Twitter world. So, we’re going to talk about this piece and I want all your thoughts down below as we go. But first quote that I take away from this piece, Joel Embiid says, “I care about how I’m going to be remembered when it comes to basketball, not as a man. As a man, you can’t tell me nothing.” So, Joel Embiid says, “Look, keep it all on the floor. You know, keep it strictly basketball. I’ve gone through a ton of things in my personal life which are very much detailed in this article. But he says as a man, you know, I’m happy as a father, as a husband, etc. So that’s how Joel Embiid feels about that. But the next thing that I find very interesting is his response or his further thoughts on the whole Marcus Hayes thing. It says months later, the column still gnaws at him. Quote, I don’t care if the NBA wants to find me a million, two million, 5 million, 10 million. I would still do it. If he walked up to me just like he did, I would push him away again. Embiid has not stopped blaming himself for leaving his brother in Cameroon to play basketball in 2011. Francis Naim, one of his agents in 2014, called Embid the night his brother died. This he says the first thing Embiid managed to say after sobbing was, “That’s my fault. I’m a piece of blank.” So, I guess my response here would be to Marcus Hayes, who by the way continues to talk about Joel Embiid and things like this in his articles is just be better, man. Like I said before, it’s just ridiculous. And no, Embiid did not handle the situation perfectly. But like he said, keep it on the floor strictly basketball. Like I said, it’s interesting after reading this piece, you know, a lot of people, at least that I’ve seen online, are like, “Hey, I’m finally going to be rooting for Joel Embiid and we have his backing.” I mean, at the end of the day, I never stopped rooting for the guy. Like, I want nothing more than for him to return to MVP form and lead this team and finally get past the second round and win an NBA championship. I mean, just the storylines in general and what it would do for other players that might need that inspiration and people out there to see him overcome the hurdles would be incredible. Now, am I 100% confident it’s going to happen? Not even close. But I still want it to happen. I never stopped rooting for him and it just it sucks that you know people make fun of the injuries and things like that when you start to hear you know about how he’s really dealing with these things deep down. Now the next thing is very interesting and relates to the current Sixers team and be told a reporter whoever leaked that is a real piece of blank. He’s talking about the team meeting that they had early in the year which you know eventually led to the whole Marcus Hayes thing and like you know all the reporters were talking about it and and be was getting called out by Maxi things like that. He says I know who leaked it. Then uh Dotton says you do and be says yeah but I’m not going to. The past is the past. The one thing I’ll say is it’s hard being around people that do those sorts 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. That’s not going to happen. So, you start to get this like isolated feel, right? Like Joel Embiid’s like, “Look, I don’t want to give my thoughts in a meeting.” And, you know, we can’t come together and even be accountable because there’s a snitch in the locker room. And the reporter says, “The way you’re talking, it sounds like this person is still around.” Joel says, “I don’t know.” Then the reporter says, “Come on, Joe. You know who’s on your team right now. Free agency just started. I don’t know what’s going on. The reporter says there’s a chance this person may not be around next season. And Joel Embiid says no, there’s a chance they’re still around. So to me, it sounds like the snitch is still in the locker room, which if you’re Daryl my you need to disassemble this thing right now. You need to break it down part by part. I mean, they probably know who it is, right? So, whoever it is is probably getting like really weird looks in the locker room and they already don’t have the trust from Joel and probably others as well. And uh there was a whole Twitter exchange online. Somebody called out Eric Gordon and Gordon responded and said, “I wasn’t the snitch.” So, the question is, who’s the snitch? You can’t have somebody like that in the locker room. You can’t. It just is going to be very bad for team morell. And Joel Embiid talks about all the narratives that he hears out there about himself. Number one, Joel Embiid makes excuses. He says it’s not making excuses. When you’re hurt every year, and everybody knows it, it’s the truth. Now, do you believe if he was 100%, does he have to have what it takes to have a chance at winning? I think a lot of people believe that because I’ve shown it in the regular season when I was healthy. What if I did this and I was like, you know what, I’m going to chill all season and coast and average 25 and in the playoffs I go and average 30. Would that make me look great? Probably. If I went from averaging 23 to 30 a playoff riser, oh my god, Joel Jordan, whatever. So Joel’s saying, “Look, like I can just chill all season long, then you guys are probably gonna say things about me about how I’m lazy just like they do with Jimmy, but then if I rise in the playoffs, you know, is that a different story? Like what do you want me to do?” And he says, “If that’s the narrative out there, I’m okay with that because I know what I’m going through. I know what’s going on. Nobody’s in my body to understand what I’m going through.” And that’s a fact. You know, like these guys play at the highest level of competition. Like they’re constantly doing things beyond what you see. They don’t just show up to the arena and shoot around and play, right? Like they’re doing all these different uh medical treatments. They’re doing like all these physical therapy things throughout the week and, you know, ice bath and just everything, you know, trying to get their mind right, trying to just stay focused on a long season. They’re traveling, sleeping in different beds. So, it is a lot on them. And I do think people need to take that into consideration more instead of just coming out and, you know, whining about him getting injured. Like, think about what he’s really going through, right? I go back to that interview he had. I think it was in December where he kind of got a bit emotional and he was like, “Look, man. Like, I’m trying everything I can. It just I’m kind of depressed right now. Like, everything I do, I end up coming back to the same types of injuries and and it just every time I feel like I’m at the top of my game, it kind of just knocks me down.” The other narrative, Joel cares too much about individual awards. He says, “If you’re in a position to win an MVP, I don’t care who you are, you’re going after because I never believed I would be in this position, first of all. Second of all, when I got in the league, I thought maybe I’ll have a chance to be a great defensive player. I never thought I was going to be this good offensively.” And this whole piece does a good job of just showing how he really didn’t expect to be here, but, you know, he he turned into that guy through hard work, through dedication, and uh I agree with him. you know, if you have a chance to win an MVP, especially nowadays with everybody getting hurt and, you know, a short timeline, short window, go out there and get it done. I don’t care about him chasing the MVP. What I want is for him to be healthy in crunch time, and I want the organization to support him with a good team, which they really have not done that much. The third one, Joel is talented, but he doesn’t have the extra intangibles that it takes to lead. He says, “Nobody’s a winner until they’ve done it.” I’m fine with that narrative because I haven’t done it. Charles Barkley, great player, right? He never won. Allen Iverson never won. That doesn’t mean they weren’t great. They were amazing. Everybody leads in his own way. I lead on the court over the years. You also grow and you learn a lot. If you ask my teammates now, they’ll tell you a way different story than my teammates a few years ago because years ago I was nowhere to be found. That’s a lot of accountability. That’s a lot of maturity. Like I said, you don’t have to like him and you can think he has a loser attitude, which sometimes he may, but all you can do is get better. All you can do each day in this life is go 1% better and just learn and grow and try to be a better person. You know what I mean? So, when you think about Joelle, like, yeah, he’s not really a natural leader as in vocality, but he shows up on the court, right? He does things. There’s things he still needs to improve on which they also talk about in this, right, which were confirmed last year, showing up on time and things like that. You have to set the example. And yes, we’re going to be mad at you for that. But I agree with him. Like, you can’t just take into account, oh, he hasn’t got past the second round because there’s great players that have never won. There’s average players that have won a lot of championships and rings do not mean everything. I mean, yes, you have to eventually get over the hump, right? and he admits that. But AI never won a ring. Why was it AI’s fault? No, the team didn’t help him enough. And we we’ve seen a lot of the same things here with the 76ers. Now, this is something that really gets annoying to me. Like, it kind of aggravates me when I start to hear about how dysfunctional the Sixers have been. Listen to this. Okay. Embiid was in crisis. He was crushed under the grief of his brother’s death, living alone at the Ritz Carlton. He played video games. He ate poorly. He hardly slept. His foot was not healing. He couldn’t play ball. Rumors had spread that his weight rose to nearly 300 lb. He contemplated quitting. His friend says he was hanging on by a thread. His relationship with the Sixers unraveled. Embiid believes something was wrong with his injury and the team brushed it off as laziness. Frustrated, he quit showing up to rehab and training and stopped communicating with the team. Embiid says, “I had to start being an a-hole. Whatever they asked me to do, I was like, I’m not doing it.” The Sixers, unsure what to do, responded by repeatedly finding him. He stopped keeping track of how much he was getting fined. He says, “It’s worth it. They’re not listening to me, and I’m not going to keep putting my body at risk.” Hanky raced to modernize the Sixers health and performance operation with Embiid in mind. At the start of Embiid’s tenure with the Sixers, his rehab had been overseen by an intern. First off, you have a number three overall pick who you think and believe in as a potential superstar. You have an intern. What? Scheduling his rehab stuff and like evaluating him. Are you serious? An intern? Like it just goes to show how bad the Sixers have been run over the years. It’s an absolute joke. And Joelle’s telling you like something’s wrong with my body and they’re not believing him. They’re still trying to push him through it because again at the end of the day it’s all business. Embiid remembers feeling disappointed but also vindicated. He was right. His critics within the organization were wrong. Something had been wrong with his foot. He wasn’t imagining pain or making excuses. This was a difficult lesson to unlearn. It’s easy to become a prisoner of one own victories. They wanted him to play hurt, to prove themselves right for drafting him, to prove themselves right for not wanting to draft him, to sell tickets to show that he didn’t sell tickets. loyalty became overwhelmingly important to him and his search for it. His willingness to test it in others became a way he forged a path within the organization. Now, in my opinion, this is the part of the article that everybody needs to hear. It’s probably the saddest, but people need to like really think about this. Okay, tell me, are you someone who’s been itching to find that right deodorant for you? Maybe you’ve tried a ton of different deodorants and can’t really pinpoint the right one. Well, guess what? Fear no longer because Mando is for you. Whether you’re trying to survive a tough long day at work or maybe you’re outside roaming around and don’t want to end up like a puddle in a few hours, the Mando is a whole body deodorant that controls sweat and odor for up to 72 hours. They did clinical studies with their products and after just 12 hours, underarm sweat was reduced by 92%. Is clinically proven to block odor all day. They sent me the new boy as well. The new deodorant plus sweat control solid stick gives you double the protection you need. No more worrying about those embarrassing pit rings or sweat stains under your arms. Just all day freshness and dryness. Now, my personal favorite is the Mount Fuji, but also the Bourbon Leather brings a really nice smell to the pits. Also, the Mando spray deodorant is fire. You just hit this one or two sprays and you’re on your way. It is comfortable. It lasts long and it does not irritate the skin for me, which is key. I would recommend the Mando starter pack. It comes with a solid stick deodorant, a cream tube deodorant, two free products of choice like mini body wash and deodorant wipes, and free shipping. And as a special offer for our listeners right now, go to shopmando.com. Get 20% off sitewide and free shipping by using our code philly take5. Support our show and let them know we sent you. You know where to go with Mando. Nick Nurse talks about Joel Embiid’s stretch of basketball leading up to the injury in Golden State and how it was the best basketball he’d ever played in his life. The Sixers were 26-7 with Embiid in the lineup. And he was averaging 35.3 points per game in 34 minutes, outpacing Wilt Chamberlain from 1961. He had scored 30 in 22 consecutive games, which was just nuts. and in December he was averaging 40 points per game. Like that is unreal in the modern day. So he’s having all these dominant performances and you know then they have the injury in Golden State. Somebody falls on his leg and then this is the part where people get really emotional when reading this piece. So they’re talking about the Sixers and Knicks series which by the way Embiid shouldn’t have even been rushed back for, right? He should have been out the rest of the season but he played through health. he risked his long-term health to uh play in that series and to come back for the Sixers so that it wasn’t a wasted season. The pressure of his rushed return from an injury was starting to tell. He was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy days before the series started. He began suffering migraines. He was short of fitness because of his injury, visibly limping, worried about the integrity of his 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 and his headache. He was hardly sleeping because his left eye wouldn’t close. I don’t want to hear a word ever again from anybody about Joel Embiid being quote unquote soft. You cannot like his game on the floor. His personality, the way he talks, the way he acts. This dude is an absolute warrior. This guy is willing to put his health on the line just as a human being to play in that Knicks series where he’s already on one leg and he’s got Bell’s pausy and he could barely stand up straight. He can’t even jump, right? Remember he told that to Maxi. And this guy is playing through everything you can think of on a rushed return from injury just to show up for his team. So, I don’t want to hear a damn thing ever again about Joel Embiid being soft. Simple as that. Here’s where it gets even crazier. Nick Batum, former Sixers, says, “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.” In the middle of late night treatment, Embiid would look at the trainer, his eyes drained. quote, “I don’t know if I can do it again. I can’t do another minute.” But then he talked himself back up. “Okay, I’m going to do another minute.” Embiid cycled through a wheel of emotions, deflated, worried about his long-term health, overwhelmed by pain, desperate to play, desperate to be saved from himself, afraid of letting the team and the fans down, wary of letting anyone know what condition he was in. And then his trainer sent him a text after game three. Quote, “Do you have the ability to give yourself grace and compassion? I’m here to remind you, you’re deserving of that. Who cares what people think about your eye? You’re allowed to fail. You’re allowed to lose, but you’re not allowed to feel shame or feel hopeless. There is no place for such emotions. You have fought. It has been a courageous fight. So, man, I mean, it feels like I’m freaking watching a movie right now reading this piece, you know? I mean, it was written very well. He was literally giving it everything he had to try to play in that game and to play in that series. And he still dominated, averaged over 30 points in the series. And it’s unfortunate they came up short. But man, I mean, nobody can come at the integrity of Embiid a as a person here or just, you know, his effort like this dude is an absolute dog and he was willing to go the go to the next level uh to put on the line for this team. And I just think it shows a lot about who Joelle is. And I feel like it doesn’t match the perception that people try to give him online when they hear when they read about him. But really what I learned from this piece is that, you know, he he’s very to himself. He doesn’t trust a lot of people. And that goes back to his upbringing, you know, in terms of his family and what he had to go through and why he started to play basketball late and just everything that this Sixers team has put him through. It’s like it it’s like having trauma, you know? It it’s like a bad relationship. It’s like whatever. Like he doesn’t feel like he always has that comfort with this team. It’s basically damned if you do, damned if you don’t. If you don’t play, then now there’s this whole narrative. I never cared about the soft comments. All I cared about was my team and my teammates. I never wanted to feel like I was quitting on them. And obviously that goes back to the whole thing in therapy about not wanting to disappoint people. Embiid says before he injured his knee against Golden State, he was close to what he considered his his final form. 3512 and 7 on 50 40 90. I’d seen everything. There was nothing you could throw at me that could throw me off from being 16 to 29, even in those 13 years of playing ball. I missed about 5 years worth of games. The way I see it, that was a normal progression for someone that started playing so late. So, yeah, I mean, Joel felt like he was finally at his peak and once again, the injury gods took him down and, you know, injured his knee. And it’s just, it’s really sad how it’s come to this point. It’s really sad that you have people in the at least the local media that, you know, talk about him so poorly and bring him down. Like this guy has given everything he could to this organization. He has not been nearly perfect, but he’s still here. You know, he could have asked for a trade a long time ago. He could have demanded out. He’s really tried to give it his all and, you know, his body is failing him. Joel says, “I hope one day somebody makes a show or whatever, writes a book about it. We went from GMs having burner accounts and then we’ve had great guys that we drafted and then again stuff happened that no one could ever figure out. The drama, Sam Hinky being kicked out, bringing in the Kangelos. There’s been a lot of things that have happened and that’s what I’m talking about when I say continuity. It starts at the top. And that’s true, man. Like what organization, you know, constantly turns over and and boils down and, you know, then you have to build everything back up and there’s new players and all this. organization does that over time and just magically figures it out. It usually doesn’t happen and you know he’s preached continuity throughout his entire career and he’s had to go through some really crazy things here. Embiid speaks of Harden with deep affection. He thinks the Sixers gave up too quickly on that iteration of the team what was required after their game seven collapse against Boston was tinkering in the margins not another restart. Well, I don’t know if I completely agree with that because they went out there and they literally quit in game seven. They had it in game six. they choked and then they showed up to game seven and did not care and it felt like that was the time when it all ended this current iteration of the Sixers and something had to happen and Harden you know got pissed off and I I just think that was probably like it it felt like the final defeat of the Embiid era Sixers that we had come to known. Uh but when we think about it, you know, years before that, they should have done more to position the team in a spot where they could go compete, right? And whether it’s the Hawk series or the Heat series or whatever it is, like they had opportunities. They just couldn’t get it done. And sometimes that’s how it goes, you know? But you got to know when the window is closing. Nobody knows this. Even James Harden is not talking to me. That’s the part I don’t like about being that guy. It puts you in the middle of those situations. If you ask James, he probably believes I had something to do with him not being here. And I’m like, I won the scoring title. You won the assist title. We had a pick and roll that was unstoppable. And that’s a fact. And I don’t know, you know, how Joel felt about it in the moment, but James Harden was very me me. I wanted to be the guy. I wanted to score the most. And you know, remember that Doc Rivers training camp clip where Harden was not happy with his role. But they were a dominant pick and roll duo, you know, and sometimes you have to realize what you have, you know, you can’t wait till you don’t have it anymore and it’s too late. That’s just a life lesson right there. You have to know how special it is in terms of what you have. And the final thing here, which is probably the most important piece of this article, he says, “When Embiid and I spoke for the final time in late June, he told me he’s making some changes this off season. Quote, “We’re not going to push anything.” thing. He says, “For my whole career, I felt like we never took that approach.” A week before, Mory had said he was hopeful Embiid would be back in time for training camp. So, Mory came out in the presser. He said that he was hopeful Joel’s good for training camp, but kind of didn’t sound that confident. And Joel Embiid says, quote, “We don’t have a timeline. Hopefully sooner rather than later.” I asked if the organization supports his new patient approach. Quote, 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 going to win any games. And we saw that this year. So, it’s just really a messed up situation based on the Paul George injury. Now, based on Joel Embiid’s comments here, I don’t have any confidence that those two will be on the floor to start the season and will be healthy. And like I said the other day, it feels like you’re kind of operating on these two different timelines. And it sucks, you know, because now you’re wrapped up with these extensions the next couple years which will limit your flexibility to improve the team. And I agree with Joel that this is what they should have done before rather than rushing him back and making it worse. But the whole medical staff, the whole organization, as you can see in this article, never knew what the heck they were doing. And that’s why we’re here at this point. And that’s why it kind of feels like they’re stuck. But, you know, the sooner the better. either they come back and they have one final run or they’re never healthy again and then you got to find a way to operate with those contracts. But again, it just feels like they’re not even on the same page with what Embiid’s saying here versus what Daryl my saying versus what others are saying. It’s crazy how this team is being ran and how it has been run for the last decade. What did you learn? How do you feel about it? As I reiterated at the beginning, I don’t think that it should take an article like this for people to feel for Joel. But I am glad that at least the national stage is starting to get a little bit of a deeper look into how much, you know, crap and how much torture he’s had to deal with over the years. Again, he still gets blamed. There’s still things that he has to improve on and that he has not been perfect on. But, you know, sometimes your environment breeds everything and it’s just been crazy to see what he has gone through. So, give me your thoughts down below. Appreciate everybody for tapping in. Be sure to like, comment, and subscribe. And I’ll catch youall on the next one.

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A powerful Joel Embiid article was released on ESPN yesterday. It highlighted some of the physical and mental struggles Embiid has gone through over the years, the dysfunction of the Sixers organization, a new Embiid injury update, and much more. Should this touching piece change our perception on Embiid and the Sixers at all? Today, we discuss it all!

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