Why Joel Embiid deserved higher, and what his injury says about NBA’s 65-game rule

SAN FRANCISCO — Joel Embiid didn’t converse.

Not with his phrases, anyway.

The Philadelphia 76ers large man who had been ridiculed for 3 days after his newest disappearance, and whose MVP protection is in such early peril due to the league’s 65-game rule that’s placing a lot strain on his delicate state of affairs, didn’t should say something after he’d left the Chase Center ground in such ache late Tuesday night time resulting from an obvious knee injury.

As was the case on Saturday afternoon, when his late scratch in opposition to the Denver Nuggets sparked a refrain of criticism about his perceived lack of willingness to tackle a fellow nice in Nikola Jokić, the terrible optics had been sufficient.

Only this time, in stark distinction to that Mile High City mishap, Embiid had abruptly turn into a sympathetic determine. And if anybody was scared, as he’d been accused of being in some high-profile media circles, it was the Sixers staff (29-17) that now finds itself fifth within the Eastern Conference standings after shedding 119-107 to Golden State.

It spoke volumes that Sixers coach Nick Nurse was inordinately gradual to attend his postgame information convention, or that his responses to questions about the left knee injury suffered with 4 minutes, 4 seconds remaining of their fourth straight loss appeared so rehearsed. It’s by no means a very good signal when a staff’s prime entrance workplace government, on this case, the Sixers’ Daryl Morey, is making the rounds within the again hallways of the customer’s enviornment in pursuit of perspective from the staff’s medical workers. All of the Sixers events who matter most had been clearly involved.

As for Embiid, he opted in opposition to talking to reporters afterward whereas prioritizing an ice tub that lasted lengthy into the night time. And with good motive.

The MRI outcomes will decide how nervous these Sixers should be as they forge forward on this title-contending mission. For Embiid’s résumé, he can miss solely 5 extra video games earlier than being dominated ineligible for the form of postseason awards which have formed the legacies of greats for therefore lengthy. That’s the micro of all of it. The Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga fell on Embiid’s left knee late within the sport, and his night time stuffed with laborious motion mercifully ended with Warriors followers wishing him effectively on the best way out with cheers and even a couple of mini-standing ovations.

But the macro, and the factor that ought to encourage followers and reporters alike to assume twice about how we focus on this huge man who’s such a basketball treasure when his physique permits him to be, is that Embiid may be very clearly preventing by means of the identical kind of bodily illnesses which have dogged him for a lot of his 10-year profession.

As one Sixers supply indicated late Tuesday night time, he has been coping with soreness in that very same left knee all season. And whereas Nurse indicated that the injury that compelled his late exit was in some way totally different from the one which had been dogging him of late, the Embiid theme remained unchanged: He was battered and bruised earlier than February even arrived, and his capability to be at his finest from right here on out is abruptly in critical query once more.

Did all of us neglect that the reigning MVP missed his first two full seasons with foot accidents, or that he has hit the hallowed 65-game mark solely twice within the seven seasons during which he has performed? There are shades of Yao Ming right here, with the expertise so transcendent however that nagging sense of bodily doom and gloom all the time ready across the proverbial nook.

Embiid has already completed excess of the 7-foot-6, 310-pound former Houston Rockets large man was capable of in his nine-year profession that was lower brief by accidents, however the unwelcome parallels are there. Starting with the scale.

You might see it lengthy earlier than he was harm in opposition to the Warriors. Embiid, who missed Philadelphia’s sport at Portland on Monday night time, appeared like a participant who pushed himself to play in opposition to Golden State as a result of the entire basketball world was screaming in his ear. There are folks inside the Sixers who’re satisfied that he performed solely due to all of the scrutiny.

He was terrible by his lofty requirements, ending with 14 factors, seven rebounds and two assists whereas lacking 13 of 18 photographs and settling for jumpers on all however one try. Embiid has all the time lumbered up and down the ground, however this was a stage of tentativeness and instability not usually seen from him. And to listen to Sixers guard Kelly Oubre focus on Embiid’s ill-fated night afterward was to be reminded that gravity has by no means been his buddy. While Embiid is listed at 7 ft and 280 kilos, it’s broadly believed that these measurements fall in need of his precise measurement.

“(You’ve got people) pressuring him to force being great when he’s 300 pounds (and) 7 foot 5?” Oubre mentioned whereas exaggerating Embiid’s peak. “Like, c’mon bro. … I think this year, people will really understand that his whole career he’s been having to make sure his body’s right. This is like NASCAR, right? If their cars ain’t working, and their mechanics ain’t really able to get the job done before the race, then what can they do? They can’t race.

“This is our bodies. Our body is our car and we have to treat it with respect. He’s 350 pounds, bro. So you know, I’m praying for him for a speedy recovery, so he can come in and give himself the best chance. But at the end of the day, that’s not important. His body and his career (are) most important.”

So perhaps all of us ought to have dug just a little deeper right here earlier than destroying him for his absence in Denver. Yours actually included.

There was the proof that was largely ignored from the Thursday night time sport in opposition to Indiana when Embiid went down halfway by means of the second quarter and appeared to harm that very same left knee that will be his undoing in Denver. Nonetheless, he performed by means of it in opposition to the Pacers and completed with 31 factors, seven rebounds and three assists in 31 minutes.

Fast ahead two nights, and it was solely truthful to surprise why Embiid wasn’t on the injury report heading into the Nuggets sport (and make no mistake, the league has been investigating that very matter). But the criticism concerning his absence went a lot additional than that.

Embiid was deemed a coward in some circles, somebody who would fairly get booed (which he was) than tackle Jokić in his constructing. Never thoughts that he had simply bested Jokić in Philadelphia lower than two weeks earlier than.

Yet, whereas it’s true that Embiid hasn’t performed in Denver since 2019, and that he has now missed six of their eight conferences within the Mile High City whereas Jokić has performed each time, the context issues an ideal deal right here. A fast recap for the sake of equity to Embiid.

His first two Denver absences (Dec. 30, 2017, and Jan. 26, 2019) got here throughout a time when relaxation was a fair greater a part of his rehabilitation program. And whereas they had been probably the most suspect of the six, that Embiid was nonetheless within the early days of placing collectively a sustained NBA run whereas attempting to remain wholesome was absolutely no small issue. Yet the three that preceded Saturday’s absence — with all of them coming after the final Jokić-Embiid showdown on Nov. 8, 2019 — had been totally different sufficient that they deserve inspecting.

• March 30, 2021: Embiid had been out since March 12 with a bone bruise on his left knee, and he wouldn’t return till April 3 (two video games later in opposition to Minnesota). This one is indisputably legit.
• Nov. 18, 2021: Embiid missed his sixth straight sport after getting into the NBA’s COVID-19 well being and security protocols. He was out from Nov. 6-27. Also legit.
• March 27, 2023: Embiid sits out with a sore proper calf. He would play the sport earlier than and the sport after. This one, it’s protected to say, might be up for debate.

None of which is to say that the historical past of Embiid not enjoying in Denver isn’t unusual. But it’s one factor to surprise aloud why the development has emerged, and fairly one other to assault the aggressive character of a participant who’s already worthy of being deemed an all-time nice. Those scorching takes look chilly in additional methods than one now.

Ditto for the untimely endorsements of the league’s 65-game rule. While followers, homeowners, tv companions and league officers have each proper to need to repair the league’s load administration dilemma, the early returns listed here are sufficient to make you surprise if it would should be revisited resulting from unintended penalties. Is it a very good factor that the reigning MVP is on the verge of exiting that dialog earlier than we’ve reached the All-Star break?

“I didn’t sign up for that (65-game rule),” Sixers backup heart Paul Reed mentioned of the rule that was agreed on as a part of the league’s collective bargaining settlement that was ratified final April and runs by means of the 2029-30 season. “I don’t remember signing no paperwork, you feel me? I guess the (players’) union OK’d it. They probably didn’t have a choice though, to be honest. Yeah, it’s tough. It adds a lot of pressure to the players. We were just talking about that. A lot of pressure — especially dudes like (Embiid who are) trying to get MVP again.”

Embiid getting wholesome is the one precedence that issues now.

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(Photo: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)