Joel Embiid BREAKS SILENCE in ESPN interview

Joel Embiid BREAKS SILENCE in ESPN interview

[Music] Welcome, welcome, welcome to another exciting edition of the baseline scoop affiliate Sports Network podcast and as you can see as we usually have three today it is two. So we are here my name is Jordan as always Zach as alongside with me here today and I know everyone is excited to go ahead and get started. I’m surprised that the chat the YouTube comments people who are going to watch this later I’m sure you will have lots to say comment but no surprise what we are going to be talking about today. Um, as most of you have already seen, heard, read through, had your talk pieces about, Embiid had a very in-depth woo man uh article that really talked about his time here uh in Philadelphia, his time coming here to Philadelphia, time moving forward either well here in Philadelphia, and his career past that point. Um, so today, of course, we’re going to break down that article, really get into it, be able to really, uh, dissect what we were able to see in there. Um, kind of take give some of our takeaways, some of the public’s reaction, of course, uh, because you’re getting a lot of that, and also the biggest kind of elephant in the room, his, um, relationship with the team. Uh, because there was a lot of ways in which people felt they took some of those comments that somebody said inside there. So, we’re going to kind of break down that. And to be honest, that’s going to be the the whole heart of our show today. So, I hope you guys are locked, loaded, and ready to go. Um, Zack, after I just told everybody what we’re discussing today. I mean, you know, let’s just dive deep into it. How are we uh how are we feeling? Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of uh all types all types of different emotions, right? Uh so, reading the piece yesterday, uh fantastic piece. If you hadn’t yet, actually, I’m gonna put it into the uh chat here. We’ll link it in the description of the video as well so that you can read uh the piece. But uh really just a fantastic piece by Dun uh Aenton just I mean incredible like the the way that he was able to get this type of uh behind the scenes like man when I tell you I talked to Joel Embiid behind the scenes and I don’t get this kind of access like there’s there’s beat reporters with even better access that I have that don’t get this type of access right so uh to to to get to this point uh to be able to have not just one but a series of these conversations to work uh this piece uh as as indepth as it as it was uh you know just really first and foremost just it it’s it’s a great piece of journalism uh you know we’ll we’ll get to what a lot of people you know the in the public had to say about it first and foremost but uh you know really just before we kind of dive into the intricacies of it uh it’s it’s very interesting timing, right, is the is the first thing that I want to point out. Uh, you know, we’re at this point where Joel Embiid and and he’s been very vocal about this. You know, this is something that was not, you know, new in the article, although there were further details that kind of came out that gave a little bit more context to it. Uh, he’s been a lot more introspective since this latest injury, right? and and since he attempted to play last year and and struggled with the continued injury and once again buted heads with the Sixers organization about how to treat his injury. Uh so you know he he’s been very very much reflecting on his basketball career right in totality that you know where he came from in it where it’s going from here what the end time looks like for him. So I I do think that it was very vulnerable for the most part honest. Uh I I I do give him credit for allowing people to see that side of him, right? Because Joel, as it’s discussed in the piece, is a very private individual, right? One of the reasons why everything is so cryptic about his recovery, not just with this injury, but always with his injuries, is because he doesn’t want that information out there, right? Uh he’s been private as best he can with his family life. He’s been private with his entire life off the court. You know, we’ve heard when the Sixers brought in Paul George, we we heard about how the reason they connected is that both of them are more on the private side uh compared to some other NBA stars out there. And so they kind of had that that in common, right? So, uh, I understand that some people are going to be critical of this piece that, you know, any kind of piece like this is effectively done on the players terms, but I mean, people have been wanting Joel to to, you know, to effectively address the media uh about a variety of different things for years. And so, uh, over time, you know, he’s he’s allowed this entire and I can’t tell you how many thousands of words it is. It’s a lot, but it’s every word is worth a read. Uh he’s allowed this to be written about himself and to give that kind of peak into his into his life off the court on and off the court. Uh and so that’s something that, you know, I you don’t have to commend him if you don’t want to. I personally think that this is something he didn’t have to do. Uh so to to go ahead and do that must not have been an easy choice for him. I just think people should recognize that. But uh there’s there’s certainly a lot of information throughout this entire piece. Yeah, I think um I think one of the interesting things um that I took away uh right off the bat was is you never realize since Embiid has been here, you know, we always think about the trolling Embiid, right? And for some reason that’s always a marker that we always come back to and we always think that Embiid what? Embiid’s not a private person. he used to troll and he was always very active and he’s very um animated on the on the basketball court. But after reading that article, it’s kind of like it it it it reminded me of that co-orker that you work next to and you might work next to them for 10 15 years and you think that that’s your best friend and you know them to death and then someone goes and says, “Oh yeah, you know they’re married and they live in Rhode Island and they do this.” You say, “What?” No, I never I never really realized how much Embiid was closed in and how much he kept to himself until you read that article and you said, “Wow, you really he’s he’s there, but he never like you said in which he talked about inside of his private circle of he didn’t trust people and then he started to give tape, you know, reasons for that. We’ll go to that. the two uh player comparisons that I actually got throughout the article that we can dive deep into a little bit further is is that uh the first takeaway with the injuries, you know, Kawhi Leonard has never came out and really talk I mean he’s discussed it small parts, but it gave me a remnants of like that um uh the state I mean the San Antonio debacle with Kawaii and them not him not trusting doctors and them saying that he’s okay and he’s not okay and then uh ironic Ironically, who would have ever thought that Embiid’s time here and Ben Simmons time here was so similar? That that was probably one of the biggest things that blew me away is that, you know, Ben Simmons was a lot more inflated and we seen that and it was very obvious right in front of us. But and be talks about some of the same exact struggles that we’ve seen that Ben Simmons had to go through as far as, you know, playing through injuries and then being critiqued about it and then the media coming at them because of, you know, how the play is and things like that. So, I thought that was um some of the some of the higher level takeaways that I got from it. But I I was just kind of diving into the article. One of the first things I wanted to throw it to you, Zach, to figure out is is that one of the big things that I had noticed as soon as the article dropped and you kind of hinted at it is is that people said timing, you know, timing. Was this a calculated play by Embiid’s camp because there’s still that ominous kind of cloud of who knows when he’s going to return. So, is this kind of the buffer or was this truly that one time that Embiid was able to really show and give people an in-depth look into it? So, I just wanted to get your uh input, Zach, on you know, the article itself before we dive into it as a whole. Why do you think they dropped now? Yeah. Right. So, there’s the the timeline of the article itself spans over months, you know, it goes, you know, not only into uh the the most previous regular season, but even beyond that, obviously. So, uh, as far as why, you know, in July as we’re still awaiting to hear, uh, you know, but there was there literally and I know I was one of them, but you had people posting photos of Joel Embiid in public saying, “Look, he’s alive. He’s standing like we it got that bad, right? So, why is it that this article is dropping now?” Well, I think part of it is to really reflect uh and and address the human side of Joel Embiid, which is something that he’s never shied away from, and it’s something that he’s often been criticized for, too, right? People were insensed isn’t the right word. I think he had some in the Philadelphia market who took it as a sign of weakness, but you had a lot of people who were very critical of him over how emotional he was after the Raptor series, right? Whereas my response to that is, “Do you want the guy to not care?” I I never really understood that that criticism, but Joel, for better or worse, and sometimes it really is for worse, uh, is very clearly human. He wears his heart on his sleeve. you know, we we see this throughout games and there’s sometimes where he’s, you know, maybe a little bit too engaged and out of control because he either puts too much pressure on himself or he’s trying too hard to appease the masses, the fan base. I mean, we we we saw this and and when people were accusing him of of uh effectively campaigning too hard to be the MVP, which is another kind of ludicrous thing. Like, of course, Joel Embiid wants to be the MVP of the league. Like, just because Nicole Joic, you know, would rather farm horses and people find that for some reason charming, doesn’t mean that other people aren’t allowed to care about being MVP. SGA cares about being MVP and that’s fine. Like, that’s a good thing. You want guys to be dedicated to the craft, to love basketball, to want to be good enough to earn personal accolades. like everyone wants a finals ring obviously, but everyone wants to be a great NBA player, right? And that’s not something to to be critical about. So again, I think a lot of this comes down to really trying to uh I don’t want to necessarily control the narrative, but uh really showcase something that people tend to lose when they talk about Joel Embiid, especially now, and that is that humanity, right? So at the end of the day, this this is a person, you know, we we tend to talk about athletes as, you know, if they are uh I’m trying to think about an inoffensive term, you know, but less than human, we’ll say like we we we tend to think about athletes as if they’re there simply for our amusement. And these aren’t people who, you know, hopefully go home to their loved ones in certain cases, you know, deal with the the same happy, sad, angry, otherwise emotions that we all deal with on the day-to-day. Uh, and we tend to kind of ostracize them in our own mind because of well, for one big reason, their paychecks, right? So, uh, you know, this really kind of showcases that that is not it should not be that case. uh whereas in addition to it I think it also tries to give context to MB during the recovery process and kind of how he’s approached it throughout his career. Right? So obviously the current comeback from this injury is something that’s a major storyline across Philadelphia. You know people have questioned how seriously he’s taken his health over the years. Uh this just the general shape of his body. People have criticized him for decisions like the Olympics. Uh, so this kind of really addresses all of those criticisms. Instead of Embiid having to talk to the media time and time and time again in the public and talking to pools of reporters and everything like that, he in the comfort of his own home, he was able to one by one kind of address these issues. And I think he kind of sees this as um almost a a tell all that will last from now until his retirement effectively. I don’t expect him to be this level of transparent really again until maybe he’s out of the league and and based on the article maybe not even then because it sounds like he kind of just plans on disappearing after he’s done in the league. So uh you know all that just to say I do think that there is some type of you know ulterior motive but I don’t think that’s necessarily wrong. Like everyone has reasons for doing what they’re doing. like no player is just going to to give uh a reporter some major scoop just out of the kindness of their heart or you know because they feel like um you know that the the the fans deserve it or whatever which is like it’s not that Joel doesn’t love and appreciate his fans but there’s a lot of people out there who who’ve kind of treated him like crap you know over his entire career and you know we’ve even seen that with with some of the public response. So, uh, I think this was done, you know, for the fans who, uh, have supported Embiid. I think this is done as a response to the critics of Joel Embiid. And more importantly, I think this was kind of done, uh, for the conscious of Embiid himself, right? Just to kind of exhale and get this all kind of off his chest. It’s a lot of stuff that weighs on you over time. As the article details, uh, he’s he’s been working through therapy for almost a year now. uh and and I think that that discuss those those discussions and I think that this discussion to kind of get this all out in the open is is just a healthy practice in a general context. So uh you know the timing I I don’t think Embiid is necessarily innocent in terms of you know uh this just being coincidentally released now but I don’t necessarily think it’s a problem either that it’s kind of used to uh answer some of the questions that people or critiques that people have had over the course of his career. Okay. No, that I I think that’s definitely fair. So, you know, now that um and thank you once again everybody inside the comments, definitely uh let us know how you’re feeling about the article and those who are listening on the YouTube definitely leave those comments. We do check those afterwards. Uh any of the streaming platforms as well definitely we want to hear your input. So, definitely go ahead and get that into us. Um so, now I want to kind of get into the the meat and potatoes of the article here. So, I had a couple of um you know, some of the hotter topics that were discussed there, and I wanted to kind of get your feel for it. Um and you know, I think I’m going to come off on the the spiciest one, which would be uh Embiid and leadership. Uh I’ll leave it as a a bubble of that. Um that was a overarching kind of theme throughout the uh article. Embid, you know, this this this boy who who discovered basketball late. Um who, you know, he speaks about his time in college and saying, you know, I’m just I he could have been working as a professor somewhere. You know, he did not see himself as this great NBA MVP that he would soon, you know, come to be. You know, talking about him just coming into the league very raw. Um, and you know the breakdown of the trust that he kind of talks about, the trust with leadership, the trust with coaches, the trust with medical profession, um, and where that kind of was. So, I mean, I wanted to get your input on just, you know, how does that look? I mean, was that a a glimpse at how he currently feels? Is it a glimpse at how he was feeling? It wasn’t a, you know, I the the tone of the article kind of left it up to the reader to really digest and really get to know and feel for, you know, how Embiid kind of looks at things, but it’s really a question of is that how he looks at things past, present, future? I I mean, what was your takeaways from it? Yeah, I think it’s kind of all-encompassing, right? I think that there’s a little bit of everything to that in terms of, you know, when you when you look at him from a leadership perspective. Uh, you know, he he even kind of tells a story of his growth in that area and, uh, maybe not in so many words, but there’s an admission of past failures as a leader in there. Uh, and and there is an acknowledgment of an attempt to improve in that area, you know, especially as it comes to connecting with his teammates, right? So, is Joel Embiid, you among the greatest leaders in in in NBA history? I mean, I I would say when especially if you’re talking about the offthe- court stuff, I would say not. Now, Joelle specifically mentioned, you know, that he feels that he’s more of a leader by example, right? You know, that that leader on the court. So, uh that’s something where I think often he has done very well. and like any other person has ultimately come up short on other occasions, you know, to include also I think we think about game seven uh against the Boston Celtics in the playoffs two years ago right now. That was I would say above everything a failure on the part of James Harden. But Joel Embiid is is not exempt from what I would call failure in that case. You know, he simply he did not come out in the proper headsp space. He did not execute properly, especially offensively throughout the game. Uh, and you know, I I’m very honest and quick to admit that the organization has not done a great job surrounding him with the right type of talent over the years, but when you look at guys like PJ Tucker and Tobias Harris, for the most part, they did their job in that game, right? And and Tobias has never I mean, he called himself a sharpshooter. That message got lost somewhere in translation in game seven against the Celtics, but he shot well from the field overall and he scored more than Joel in that game. And you know these these are are things that you know you look at that type of situation and that’s when you need your stars to rise up right you can’t say and and I get it you know we have LeBron James get bailed out by Ray Allen and uh you know Jordan’s been bailed out before and a lot of these stars you know I mean even like Derek Fischer has has saved Kobe Bryant I mean like this stuff happens right like because because it’s not as much as basketball is so much more effective by one individual than a lot of these other sports. It doesn’t mean that a single person can control everything, right? I mean, we’ve seen LeBron James go on a dominant run, you know, even within the past 10 years, but again, like that doesn’t mean that you can literally put anything around him and it’s going to be that same situation, right? And again, LeBron James is is at minimum a top two player in the history of the NBA, right? So, not that I’m saying that Joel shouldn’t be striving for those heights. I I think Joel has been one of the most talented players in NBA history. You know, we can get into the minutia in terms of best and you know what what that actually means and uh whatever. But when you look at at him overall as a leader, I think that there has been a little more left to be desired than what he’s willing to admit. But I think he has trended in the right direction. Now, what I will say is the Sixers organization, I think, has clearly identified that area of opportunity as well, and they’re kind of acting to change that within the team. Maybe not with Joelle. there’s not only so much that you can say to him directly, but when you look at guys like Tyrese Maxi, Jared McCain, VJ Edgecomb, you know, these are guys who there’s a clear shift, right, in terms of, you know, where where their mentality is at in terms of in terms of the craft and I think even leadership ability like you have and and one thing that I’m sure we’ll talk about a little bit is the the meaning came up, right, after the game against the Miami Heat, Kyle Lowry calls a meeting. Um, yeah, he he brings some some chicken, which I thought was a very funny unique detail that was mentioned in the uh in the article. Uh, and and that’s the infamous meeting where, you know, Tyrese Maxi challenged Joel Embiid. And that’s not even the controversial part. The the issue is that the information of the meeting was leaked, right? And so, uh, Joelle apparently now knows who the individual who leaked it was. I have my uh educated opinion, although I’m going to leave that out of this conversation uh you know for for my own safety. Uh but what I will say is uh you know the way that he addresses in the article is very clear that this is still an issue for him, right? He has deeply rooted trust issues that stem from his childhood even uh and he goes into all of that information in the article. So to be in a sense backstabbed by one of your teammates, which leaking the details of a players only meeting, I definitely see his point as far as that goes. Not that I condone uh or or disagree with what Tyrese Maxi said in challenging him, but for a person within the organization, I’ll leave it at that to have leaked that information, uh that’s obviously problematic and and I can understand having an issue with that, especially when you consider the fact that as Embiid effectively confirms in the article, that person is still with the team, right? So, uh I can understand that being an issue. However, his response and talking about, well, you know, maybe I I I don’t even feel like going back to these meetings or anything like that. Uh, that’s also an issue, you know, and and and again, I understand that feeling of hurt, but you have to be the guy. And he’s he’s been very uh ready to push Tyrese Maxi into that spot to be that guy. And I think Maxi, to his credit, is that type of leader, but that’s not the point. The point is you are Joel Embiid. you are supposed to be the guy. And for you to even acknowledge the fact that unless you’re talking to a person straight up, like if he’s talking to the person who leaked that and he said, “When you do stuff like that, that makes me not even want to come to these meetings, that’s one thing. But for you to kind of put that out in the ether, and this has kind of been the issue of Joel Embiid’s career is that he puts too much stuff out to the ether. That reflects poorly on you. And I think that is an individual case of poor leadership. So, I you know, I I think that it’s kind of spanned his entire career and and reached various levels of well, he’s been bad and he’s better and then he’s worse again. And I don’t think Joel Embiid will ever be the leader Philadelphia wants him to be. Uh but I I think it is something that he is at least trying to improve on just on his own terms. Okay. No, that’s that’s definitely fair. I I think that was something I took away as well is that, you know, the article sprinkled a lot of his insecurities. U which was nice. You know, you don’t get that from stars too often. Um you know, of course, some people will see one side of it and say, “Oh, well, he’s soft and it’s just confirmed to me that he’s soft.” Um, you you brought up a good point and this is something that one of my uncles had to tell me and I I would love to tell everyone out there who watches any sports, anything in which someone is a celebrity, an athlete, someone who has to go out and perform on a daily basis. I challenge you to say that day that you woke up where you had a headache or you wanted to take a rain day and watch SVU. Imagine if you never had that luxury. You just had to go to work each day and not just go to work because we all have went to work and kind of slid by, you know, maybe had a few few too many cocktails on the weekend, hung over Mondays turn into hover over Wednesdays, but imagine having to go to work and perform at a consistent basis. And you know, I think that what kind of level set for me as far as expectations with athletes, celebrities, any of those is that like you had mentioned before, these are real people at the end of the day. You know, these aren’t just, you know, uh robots that can go out there and just perform. You know, that’s just not the reality of and I think he was very um open about that about like you said, in essence, he kind of admitted that he’s not going to be that leader, right? He said, “My actions on the court will speak louder than the words that will come out of my mouth.” Which I thought, I mean, that’s who we’ve seen Embiid has been, right? He’s on the court giving you the DX chop, right? He’s giving you that, but every time you’ve seen him going to press conferences, walking, we know he’s wearing sweats, his slippers, he’s in, he’s out. That’s all you’re getting from him, right? So, I mean, what better parallel to show you that in regards to how he really, you know, moves and operates. And I thought another interesting uh point that I seen inside of there that I wanted to get your intake your kind of fill on is is that you know obviously Embiid has had a riddled um injury history. That’s that’s no secret. You could wa not never have watched basketball in the city of Philadelphia and that’s the one thing you probably will say about him be he’s always injured. Um, now getting inside those injuries, I think some of the the two takeaways that kind of jumped off the screen to me was or I’ll say, yeah, two that really jumped off at me. There was a part that mentioned that uh Embiid coming into an injured, you know, rookie season and intern was in charge of, you know, that rehabilitation process. That kind of jumped ding. Woo. That’s kind of scary. Now, obviously, we don’t they didn’t really give too much uh insight into that, but that was a quick little blurb that a lot of people, especially in Philly sports, have kind of taken went, “Well, wait, what’s going on there?” Um, I thought that was something. And then just the part where he said that he got so fed up to the point that he pretty much just said no, you know, and I had mentioned earlier about that that comparison to Ben Simmons and everything else, but um and Kawhai Leonard in essence. Um, but I just wanted to feel kind of your kind of take on some of those things that he was just saying about his medical history and kind of his willing to kind of navigate through that. Um, and even, you know, they did a great job of, uh, bringing in and talking about, you know, his being able to work out and rehab and bringing in a team. Sam Hanky actually putting in place a team for him that ultimately, you know, with the whole trust the process goal kind of got dismantled. But, you know, I I I I feel like he really wanted to get out there and just say, “Hey, I’m just not an injury player. You know, all of my injuries was because I was playing so hard. You know, an elbow to the face or me going for a ball here.” So, you know, what was some of your insights on some of those um you know, uh his medical history? We’ll kind of talk about some of the blurbs that he threw out there. Yeah. So, I think for for people who remember uh and this this even goes past, you know, my I’m 30, so this goes this goes past my my uh record or time. I think a lot of people first thought of Andrew Tony right when they’re going through a lot of this and um the situation that has to this day affected his relationship with the team. Uh which is I would say probably among the biggest mistakes in Sixers history. you know, not not first and foremost for what it caused Andrew Tony, but to also deny the fans that opportunity to uh to see him with the team at this point and celebrate with the team. Uh things of that nature, like it’s frustrating, right? And and I think there’s a lot of people who tend to say, you know, well, MB doesn’t work hard enough. he doesn’t take care of his body well enough, he likes to complain this and that. One thing that Embiid was very excited to include in this article is that he was right about that foot injury and he was right about it not healing properly. And again, and and he he does kind of allude to this as well. He wasn’t taking great care of his body at that point. Right now, that eventually did change and it changed sooner than a lot of people expected. And you have people who again because he’s a troll and you mentioned this earlier Jordan but uh he he he talks about his trolling days and among the stories that people took literally uh or seriously like him killing a lion was also him downing Shirley Temples by the pitcher uh which I have no doubt that he’s capable of but doing so is is a very different thing right but people were very quick to to believe that even more so than him killing a lion. Uh so when you kind of look at that I think that there is still this aspect of blame and we have old derms in the chat checking in saying that he thinks that there’s still a lack of accountability. I agree. Let me just say that that even to this day there is that that general lack of accountability for Joel Embiid. However, it really does showcase and highlight a lot of the internal problems within the organization. And I get it. We’re getting one side. we’re getting, you know, a side of the story from an offended party as well, right? So, there’s there’s going to be bias on that end. But when you look at the facts and the fact of the situation are his foot was not healing. They did bring in a new team. They did in terms of medical team, they did bring in specialists to work with Joelle specifically with this issue and it made a major difference. And so, you know, when you look at that, there’s a little bit of frustration because it’s continued uh ineptitude by the franchise that has transcended. You know, a lot of people love to to throw stones at at Daryl my part of that. A lot of people love to to to say a lot of stuff against Nick Nurse. He wasn’t a part of that. when you look at someone like Josh Harris who people are very critical of Josh Harris may have owned the team but he wasn’t the one making those decisions you know for the most part so when you look at at this history of again the word is ineptitude like it’s frustrating and again going back to Andrew Tony it has spanned generations in Philadelphia this team refuses to be a normal team and I think that’s one of the most frustrating things for Sixers fans that they are rightly frustrated with. But again, Joel Embiid also was right to be frustrated with the way that his injury was being managed. And so now that brings you to today, once again, going back to last season, we’re in a spot where Joel feels his injury is being mismanaged. Not only that, but he has this case that he can point to from years to years ago where he says, you know, I said the same thing back then and it turned out I was right. So for Philadelphia to try and tell him, you know, well, no, you just have to play through it. You have to stay the course and this and that. Joel’s not going to listen to that, especially after this history of being vindicated. So, you know, that’s how you come to him having this arthoscopic surgery earlier this year, which it could it help? potentially, but it’s a very minor procedure that effectively removes debris within his knee and it doesn’t solve the main problem, which is this is a guy who’s walking around without a meniscus trying to play basketball while being over 7 feet and roughly 300 lb. And he’s he’s lost weight, I know, but we’re ballparking here. Even still, when you look at that, there there is a certain point where I think the Sixers do have uh their message of of of you have to learn to play on it is not incorrect. Right now, I’m not going to sit here and say that their medical team certainly has every diagnosis and treatment plan correct. We can be incredibly uh critical of their medical team, and I think that’s extremely fair, especially when you look at how all of the injuries were managed last season. But for a guy like Joelle, maybe the relationship isn’t damaged beyond repair in all aspects, but he certainly does not have faith in this organization from a medical standpoint as shown by the fact that he not once, not twice, or or or I guess I should say not once, but now twice has gone out of his way to say, “You are wrong. I know my body. This isn’t right.” and the first time he was proven right. Hopefully the second time he is too. Hopefully the surgery magically fixes him and he’s back to his old Joel Embiid self. I don’t have a lot of faith in that. That is the the hope in some sense is that he can return to something like what he was, something close to MVP form. Hopefully Joel Embiid is correct in that regard. I hope the best for him. I hope he has many more dominant years in the future. Unfortunately, that story to me is a little bit of a victory lap that has given him the license to now kind of control his own recovery. Uh, which I don’t have as much faith in, but that’s something that we’re not really going to know the answer until the beginning of next season. Yeah. No, I I definitely would agree there. Um I I think that um going into that definitely, you know, the injury was like a a huge takeaway um in regards to some of uh you know, his issues that he’s had. I think another part that um you know, people are kind of skipping over, you know, take away injuries, take away you know, how he may troll or whatever. Um, I think he shined a light in just being honest about his tenure here as a Sixer and just the organization and the constant change that’s been around him. Um, and I I felt like he also alluded to about that constant change is is that I don’t think he’s had a trust in management, anyone above him since Sam Hanky. like it it just seems like the picture that was painted he has not whether it was the Kangelos we all know how that goes with the burner accounts and things like that um you know I don’t think there’s necessarily a level because a lot of the people they interviewed there they never said that Embiid gave off a sense that he just disliked you or anything like that but he holds his close circle close and I think he talked about some of the issues that he’s had um you know in regards the coaches, GMs, management, just in regards to being able to handle, you know, what he’s asking for for a team and things like that. Um, I think one of the other kind of things that he kind of touched on even moving forward is is that the bigger question was asked, well, you know, when are you returning? And it came back to that point where he kind of referenced in the article where in times prior he would rush back because, you know, he wanted to show that he was that Iron Man and, you know, he didn’t want to let people down and he rushed back and he got injured. And I feel like the way the article ended was is that he’s almost taking his life back, right? And he’s saying, “I’m not going to give a time frame right now because I need to make sure that my body’s right.” before I’m able to come back. As a six uh as a human, we can all understand that. We get it. Especially if you’re saying this trouble past of rushing back and not necessarily having the medical uh staff all the way behind you and things like that, we can all understand that. But as a Sixers fan and as someone who covers the Sixer, his comment about his time frame being unclear and how that was the same smoke and cloud that was around this time last year before starting the season, right? Like we all thought Embiid was only going to be out for a week, maybe two weeks, maybe. Then started to go to like a month. Then it was like, ah, maybe he’ll come back next month. and it kind of grew and it got Sixers fans very um agitated. So going into the season, another season again with this article being dropped and him also now saying no clear time frame. Sixers fan, someone who covers the Sixers, how are we feeling about that? Yeah. So again, Embiid now has this power where he’s he’s able to control his recovery to a degree. Uh and I think the decision to try something different is not inherently a bad decision, right? The honest truth of the matter is that I think that we are beyond the point of looking at injury recovery. And I think that we are actually at the point of Embiid learning and training to play in his new body, right? Uh and and what I mean by his new body is life with his knee in this condition, right? So that’s not dissimilar to what the Sixers bulk message was that Embiid will have to kind of just learn to play on it. Uh however, I do think that him taking uh a bit of a different approach is not necessarily the worst idea. So, when you look at uh offseason training, that has to look different. You know, when you look at, you know, the the weight that he comes into every year, uh and to his credit, he lost nearly 30 pounds last year, you know, coming into the year last year. So, um you know, that is that that’s him working towards that, right? So, I think potentially continued weight loss. Uh but in in addition to that he has to change effectively his entire game in my opinion right so uh he he he should be looking to a lot of people have talked about you know making that kind of like Tim Duncan change and that’s something that even Daryl my himself has uh he’s preferred that comparison to others in terms of that latestage career move. I don’t think we’re looking at Tim Duncan. I think we’re looking at more of a Brook Lopez situation, but hopefully a better version. And Brook Lopez has been a very valuable winning player. Not that he’s been, you know, he’s not necessarily been an all-star, you know, these these past few years or so. Uh but when you look at a guy like Joel Embiid, I think that’s more so what you have to look for is a guy who uh can continue to impact both sides of the ball uh and can get himself to the point where he can play more games than he misses. Right? And I’m not saying that the the number for him to look for is 41 because obviously that’s not that’s not the case. But can you give me 55? Can you give me 60? You know, I think that’s something that is perfectly rational. I think it’s something that uh is a decent regular season marker. Uh and and then one more thing that he talks about in in the article is, you know, people talk about him kind of chasing those regular season accolades uh and and and talking about, you know, supposed postseason failures, which I think, you know, there’s he’s certainly come up short in the postseason on a couple of occasions, but they’re widely overstated those postseason failures. But there needs to be that focus on the postseason. And so what he has to do is to make sure that his body is not ready for a 50 55game regular season, but that it’s ready for the grind of the postseason. And that’s going to be the most difficult part because that’s what you can’t there’s no direct comparison to train for that during the regular season. Games are more spaced out. Uh it’s just a completely different format. Traveling schedule is completely different. The the the level of minutes that you play is also very different. Uh but this this team is is going to they’re going to have to work with Embiid and Embiid has a lot of power in his hands right now. He’s a lot of the control and that’s going to really affect the dynamic. But when you look at other players who have kind of gone through similar situations before and and the player that everyone really compares him to is Kawhi Leonard, right? uh you know who who had this most recent uh surge back to kind of looking like his old self a little bit. You got to do what you can to kind of follow that mold in terms of how Leonard played this past regular season. And unfortunately the dynamics is a little bit different because he’s a center versus a forward. Uh the the damage I think is more severe I would assume. I can’t say for certain, you know, that’s that’s obviously for the medical team to say, but just considering the amount of times Embiid’s had the damage done, the weight he’s had on that knee over the history of it, uh, yeah, I would assume that it’s in worse condition, but, you know, it it it’s still the closest thing that we’ve had to a mat back from where Joel Embiid is. So, uh, hopefully they can follow that as best they can and and we’re looking at, uh, a guy who can impact the the the team again come next year because he that’s the other thing is that when he did play, he was so far from himself and that’s the kind of guy who is not like that’s the kind of guy who’s going to be very unhappy and could potentially retire if I’m being frank is if he continues to play like he did last year. So, uh, this this is it’s it’s obviously going to be crucial for the Sixers. Uh, it is the single most important storyline for the team this year. Uh, and as far as being able to compensate around Joel Embiid, unfortunately, the Sixers don’t have many options for large part because the team is currently held hostage by Quinton Grimes, which is really a two-way street, but uh, it’s definitely affected their team building ability at this point. But come the regular season or or or anytime after Grimes is signed, that’s when it really falls on Daryl my know with him saying, “Well, he’s got to get stuff started now.” Can’t really happen until after Grimes is signed. But once that does happen, that’s when the clock starts ticking for Daryl my for Joel Embiid. Unfortunately, there’s just not much that you can do other than treat your body right and continue to to work yourself back into shape. Uh but again, it’s going to be a matter of what we actually see when it comes time to play. Yeah. No, that’s fair. And um old Dary Yams, I doubt you have went on a tear spree in here in the comments. I’m going to I’m going to give those who may not be able to see your your comments um an overview of just saying that um you know, Embiid needs to uh prioritize his health and his being getting in shape. Um you mentioned about him losing the 30 pounds about two or three years too late. Um, the thing I’ll say about that just real quick, right, so he’s done a better job of taking care of his body for a number of years now, but where I will agree with you there is that when it comes to specifically losing the weight, right, and that’s been kind of a sore subject. People have been talking about him coming in overweight and this and that. Uh, Embiid came in with a lot of functional strength in a lot of those past years, right? So, it is that same functional strength that has also allowed him to succeed, right? So, I I do hear you that, you know, I would have loved to see Joelle stay a bit more trim over the course of his entire career. Uh, but I want to make sure that that’s not conflicted with thoughts of him eating Chick-fil-A on the sidelines before games. Like, I agree that he wasn’t in the conditioning he needed to be. And I think in his mind, it’s more so about getting his body in the form that he feels most dominant in as opposed to the form that it needs to be in to have success, you know, both in the regular and postseason. But, you know, that’s that’s just me. And I and I think once again, just to humanize our our athletes again, um you know, I go to the gym every day, right? But it could take one slight thing for me to fall off going to the gym once. And I don’t know if you’ve ever if you’ve tried to go back to the gym after missing one day. Oh, you’re pretty much done. That’s it. And I equate that to the same thing of, you know, well, people will say, you know, if you know, whatever, he he hurt his face or whatever. Oh, well, that doesn’t stop. I don’t one slight imagine not having to wear a mask. Imagine having to change your shot slightly. Imagine having so I I see the man couldn’t close his his eye during the bell’s pausy sleep like like there’s so much like literally and he talked about in that article not the ability to sleep and things like that. So you know I think we take for granted that we say we put these dollar figures on athletes and say you should be able to go out there and perform regardless. And you know, I know we see LeBron now and you know there they float the million dollar but he never has confirmed the amount that he spends on his body. But I think we think that that should be the norm when in reality that’s the unicorn. Like that’s not what we can expect from every athlete. I mean we see it all the time. And you know, just to be honest, as far as uh Zach, I think you alluded to it is is that this is going to be one of the most defining off season of Embiid’s career because he acknowledged this is his last chapter. You alluded to it and I think Embiid alluded to it inside the article that he’s going to have to be a different form of himself. This is going to be really the first season of new Embiid. Whether that’s Embiid playing for one year, two year, three years, four years, this is the new the new next chapter of Embiid. And I think he’s working like you said of, you know, what does that look like? You know, uh, think about arguments that we had uh, you know, six years ago. Well, he’s not in the paint enough. He needs to shoot more three. I mean, he doesn’t need to shoot as many threes. And then now if I said, “Well, imagine if he was bumping and grinding in the paint for the last five years. What would his body look at at this current point in time?” Oh, well, you know, I don’t want him shooting as mean threes. He needs to get back out. Or, you know, now he’s too hurt. You know, I’ve seen in the last two years, people when he dove, um, what was that? The Knicks game. And, you know, he went for the dunk, right? And everyone applauded. That was a great dunk. But then the first thing that everyone said after that was, “Well, why are you doing that?” So, you know, you kind of get both sides of the coin where you’re telling him, “Hey, I need you to be this dominant imposing center like Shaq, but also I don’t need you to get hurt. I want you to play like Carl Anthony Towns.” So, I think this will show us what his new Embiid form will look like, but we’ll only see after that point. Um, I mean, it and and you know, we we have to see how the team is able to mold around him. I think you alluded to it as well is that Maxi is obviously going to be the head of the snake. Um, you know, just because availability that that’s the best thing you can offer in sports and currently right now it’s an even better ability than being able to put the ball in the bottom of the basket. It’s because he’s going to be there. I mean, I think everyone knows that going into it and I think that will also shape how this team moves forward. Um, I feel like we really broke down a lot of the key kind of points inside of the articles. I mean, was there anything, Zack, that uh you wanted to touch on? There’s really just I guess it’s more so something I want to address in the comments, right? So, um, and it’s it’s brought up a good point, right? So, well, let’s talk about in two ways. So, first, uh, again, our guy older games bringing up, you know, he’s, uh, a literal billionaire athlete. Well, like, yeah, we get what you’re saying. like he’s a very very very he gets paid a lot of money for this this job right now obviously the amount of money somebody makes should not dehumanize them but I do hear your point when you say his job is to take care of his body now Joelle has not always done the most in that area what his job actually is to do is to win games right so uh whether or not like when you look at a guy like Allen Iverson for instance that’s a guy who didn’t take care care of his body. Uh won a lot of games, you know, and and so like you can say like, you know, maybe he could have gone farther if he took care better care of his body, but you also don’t know that like so much of what’s happened to Joel over the course of his career is not because of the way that he’s kept his body, right? Uh fractured orbital is not because of the way he took care of his body. The the LCL sprain that he suffered against the Brooklyn Nets is not because of the way he took care of his body. you know, when you look at Bell’s Pauly, and I’m not trying to make excuses for Joel. That’s not my job. You know, my job is just to to look at the facts around his time in Philadelphia and report on that accordingly with accuracy. Right? So, there’s a lot of times where I think Joel has fallen short of his job, right? Which you look again, we mentioned game seven against the Boston Celtics earlier. We talk about uh game four against the Atlanta Hawks as an opportunity where he came up short. We talk about uh you know, game six even against the Boston Celtics. I know that he he had a pretty good stat line at the end of the game, but if you watch that game and you watch how he fades towards the end, you know, these are opportunities that we look at and we say there was simply more that Joel Embiid could have done, right? So looking at his entire career, right, and and you know, the the shape that he’s been in, there is certainly times where you can say, well, him not taking care of his body led to him getting gassed in this situation or him not having enough to give at the end of the situation. But the thing that I know do want to point out with him at the same time is that there is also an inherent difficulty in building your team around a center and that’s why teams frankly don’t do that often anymore, right? You know, you look at some of the modern teams who have done so. Well, the Spurs are only just beginning to with Victor Webbyama and hopefully his bloodcot issue is truly resolved, which there’s, you know, been recent good news about that. Uh, we’ll see what happens in San Antonio. You look at a team like Denver, that’s obviously the one that always gets mentioned. You talk about Nicole Joic, uh, and you even hear some people say, “Well, why doesn’t Jokic deal with these issues? He takes better care of Yokic takes terrible care of his body.” That’s a that’s a very big, uh, complaint that a lot of people have of Jokic, those who are brave enough to complain about Nicole Joic publicly. But when you talk about his shortcomings as a player, Nicole does not play one side of the ball, which allows him to maintain more energy offensively. And what his franchise has done that Joel Embiids has not is build a team around him capable of winning and overcoming his shortcomings, right? So adding the shooting that Denver did obviously was huge for a guy like Nicole Joic, right? But on top of that, adding in a guy like Aaron Gordon who was able to fill up so much of a void defensively was huge. Bruce Brown again his versatile defensive ability uh uh Contavius Caldwell Pope like these were guys who stepped in and played a major role for a guy like Jokic to kind of overcome the shortcomings that naturally happen when you have not only just a center as your best player but one who doesn’t really follow through on the defensive end. Right? So when you look at Joel Embiid, well, what’s the counterpoint? You could say, you know, oh well, you know, they’ve had a lot of guys who do a lot of the same things. They take up the same spots on the floor that Joel’s already in. And there’s definitely some truth there. You know, my my I guess my point what I’m rambling on, but my my end game is here. You know, you have to look at the entirety of the situation. There’s obviously more that Joel can do. You can’t and I think the article did try and do this. You can’t excuse everything away from all of his failures in his time in Philadelphia, but you also have to acknowledge the complete situation. The Sixers have failed Joel Embiid. The the his teammates have failed Joel Embiid at times. And absolutely, without question, Joel Embiid has failed himself, his teammates, the organization, and the fans at times. So there’s there’s not any, you know, perfect person in this scenario. Uh but you know when when you look at where they go from here, it’s it’s a matter of him simply playing good enough for the transition to occur. And that transition of course is is to Tyrese, it’s to Jared, it’s to VJ. Uh so, you know, can he reach a level where they can maintain some consistent level of success potentially? But that’s that’s really the biggest question at the end of the day is is just getting to that point. uh you know I I don’t care necessarily about his past as much anymore. I don’t care necessarily uh about you know the the the he said she said of the James Harden situation which is something else that comes up in in the uh in the article as well. Uh but when it when you really get down to it this is a guy who for all those who want to trade Joel Embiid and move off of him you simply cannot do. There is no value to do so. Uh, and so these are two sides that are are married by force and they have to figure it out and they have to figure it out together and there’s there’s really no other way to talk around it. Yeah. And I think um I think that that is a very a very accurate point. Um, and I see everyone uh in the com comments um Ed, I see you talking about time for divorce. Um, and old dirty yams obviously you have uh uh expressed that as well. Uh, Zach, I believe you’re right. Um, you know, we’re here. At the end of the day, we are here. For those who have been here long enough for when I remember when Sixers tickets were a penny. They were putting in the daily news. They were literally begging you to come. The promotions they were doing, man, they were a dollar this past year. So, like it’s been rough times. Like like for those who have seen the inflation from penny tickets to a dollar tickets, we’ve been here. I know the frustrations. I know it because I’ve lived it. Zack lives it. We both understand and we get it. We can understand. We have seen. We grew up. We grew up and I know the glory days of Allan Iverson. And we remember that magical first game. And I get it. And we’ve just felt like we were always just that close. We almost knocked out the Lakers. Not really, but we were that close. We were there. And then just to go from that to the riddle with injuries, the Ben Simmons, the Nerlers Noels, the everything that’s come to Jalil Oper and Father and Son, like I get it. I’ve been there. I understand. I think where we have to come from as far as this article is is that you can look at it. You can say, “Listen, whether you like it or not, Joel Embiid is going to go down whether you like it or not, at minimum top three Sixer that has ever played here. And I’m being very generous even saying three cuz I feel a little bit differently in there, but I’m going just give you three. Come to terms with it. Understand it. That is a the most dominant big man that you will probably see at that position, especially before this crossover that’s about to happen where everyone shoots threes that you may have seen in your life outside of obviously the bigs, the shacks and those like that. The more important thing that I think that I would love to leave this conversation on, you all can feel how you will feel about Embiid. Nothing that me or Zach will say will change that. Everyone has their opinions because they’re like, and we all got them. We all know that. But I think one of the biggest things that I took away from the article that spoke to this new transition of Embiid’s life is Jamir Nelson seen this man struggling and suggested for him to go to therapy. And for anyone out there, everything that’s off the court, on the court that you may be dealing with, therapy will change your outlook on life. And I believe that that article outlined that. And I’m happy that Embiid was able to sit back and say he didn’t want to go to therapy. Like most men do not want to go to therapy. He said, “Listen, I never I thought that made me look soft.” On the other side of him going to therapy, he said that was one of the most important things that he has done in his life. So I think there’s something that you can take away from that and saying, “Listen, we can talk about his accolades. can talk about what he does on the court, off the court, but at the end of the day, this man is taking the necessary steps in his life to make himself a better person, and hopefully that will transition onto the court. Yeah, I I couldn’t agree more. I mean, you know, really, this is something that um mental health you have to take seriously. And uh you know we we’ve seen cases in Philadelphia you know Ben Simmons being being a prime example obviously uh and and there’s a lot of scrutiny that these people face on a daily basis and there’s people are so quick to write it off and say uh you know oh well they get paid you know millions of dollars to deal with this and that. Again at the end of the day we all have pressure that we deal with you know from from work to family life. uh and be details a lot of you know what he struggled with outside of basketball in this article and you know for for someone to uh at at such a young age to be at the same time given keys to such opportunity that few people get while at the same time having to grow up in such a uniquely alone way. Uh yeah, no, I think I think that there is a lot to respect in terms of that decision to uh to make that decision to go to therapy. And again, shout out to Mary Nelson, like you said, uh and and to to anyone out there, this is stuff that we all deal with. Uh you know, this is not to say that um you know, because this is Joel Embiid, it should be treated any different than anyone else. I mean like people go through stuff and and people are afraid to accept help uh more more than anything. So uh for anyone struggling out there uh especially a lot of the men out there who you know we we have that tendency to to be stubborn and to I’m speaking for for myself but I know a lot of guys are out there with me uh to to be hard-headed as we silently struggle through things. uh speak to your friends, speak to your loved ones, speak to professionals cuz you know, listen, it’s important stuff and um it could drastically change your long-term outlook and if a guy like Joel Embiid can exhibit some change as admittedly stubborn as he is and there’s there’s hope for all of us. Yeah. No, I uh I definitely would agree with that and I think that’s a perfect point to uh end here. Um, before we get out of here, as always, uh, we appreciate everybody. Everyone in the comments, we love the dialogue that we’re having with you. Everyone who’s on YouTube, uh, listening through any of the podcast streaming services, we appreciate your comments. We get emails, we get comments, we get, you know, someone will catch us in the street and say we appreciate it because it makes us better, you know, and it it brings a dialogue and a conversation that makes it flow a lot easier. We want to make sure that you’re able to come here and you know we’re we’re Sixers fans at the end of the day. That is the thing that’s going to unite us. Our frustrations will only grow draw us and make us stronger. But that’s what we’re here for. Um you know if you haven’t done so already like, subscribe, comment because that way it’ll make it easier when we go live at 6. You’ll get a notification. Jump right on live and you can start interacting with us and any of those platforms. Um definitely like I said share. Once again, we appreciate you guys as always. We appreciate you here at the Baseline Scoop Philly Sports Network podcast. If nothing more, peace, show you love. [Music]

Joel Embiid made waves with a recent piece from ESPN that took a deeper dive into the star’s psyche than ever before. Zach and Jordan break down the biggest takeaways and discuss where Embiid and the Sixers go from here.

Link to Embiid article: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45747447/joel-embiid-philadelphia-76ers-star-sees-you

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