Why Do Embiid's Free Throws Drive Everyone Insane?
Daniel Olinger is a writer for the Rights To Ricky Sanchez, and author of “The Danny” column, even though he refuses to be called that in person. He can be followed on X @dan_olinger.
“The Danny” is brought to you by the Official Realtor Of The Process, Adam Ksebe.
Here is the entire list of players in NBA history who have averaged 35 points per game in a season while having a true shooting percentage above 62%:
2023-24 Joel Embiid
And we’re done. That’s the entire list.
In total, there will have been only 12 seasons in NBA history where a player has averaged over 35 points per game if Embiid keeps at this pace, and no one — not even 2018-19 James Harden — can rival the efficiency at which he scores at that high of volume.
Even more than James Harden did years ago, Joel Embiid is breaking basketball. And a lot of people are mad about that.
As every Sixers fan knows, there’s always a lot of social media outrage about the number of shooting fouls Embiid draws and how much of his 35 points per game comes off free throws (10.5 per game this year, to be exact).
The online war rages on each year, with Embiid haters posting video compilations of the MVP falling to the floor and bemoaning his FTA numbers, while Sixers fans respond in unison, “Admit it, free throws made you cry.” Even Daryl Morey got in on the fun this past week.
Seems we have to remind folks of this every season https://t.co/d4ZCp5jbwh pic.twitter.com/fS3zQA3kdd
— Daryl Morey 🗽🏀 (@dmorey) January 21, 2024
Embiid’s foul-baiting tactics aren’t unique. Shooting a ton of free throws is a prerequisite to being a top tier scorer. It’s how the best players in the world can still hit 25-30 points on nights where their shots from the field aren’t falling.
The four leaders in points per game this season are Joel Embiid, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The four leaders in free throw attempts per game this season are Joel Embiid, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
This is just the way things work in basketball.
So why is Embiid singled out as the “unwatchable player” of the group? Why does he “ruin basketball” for some while SGA and Luka are adored?
There’s a ton of subtle reasons, ones that Sixers fans and writers before me have already pointed out:
It’s really funny that Embiid and Harden were teammates the last two years, because 2018-19 Harden was the last player to get this treatment. Both Embiid and Harden essentially solved basketball to the point where it felt that them getting their numbers every night was a foregone conclusion. They turned basketball into a math problem where they’re always right. And unless you’re a Rockets or Sixers fan, it’s not fun to watch your team give up 35 points to one guy every night no matter how good the defense is. People don’t want basketball to be solved, but that’s what Harden and Embiid have done with their cross of efficiency and volume.
Embiid is a gigantic human being, and people really don’t like it when he falls down because a much smaller human touched him. As one of my non-Sixers friends told me, “He way too big to be falling like that.” Of course, all Process Trusters know that Embiid falls on his back and his butt on purpose to avoid injuries to his lower body, as ordered by his doctors. But most people outside the greater Philadelphia area either don’t have that context or don’t want it. To them, the dichotomy of Embiid being so strong he can bowl over almost anyone in the league, but fragile enough that he goes flying when a 6-foot-3 displaces his balance mid-air, is too steep for them not to be enraged by it.
It’s also his specific embellishment of calls that makes other NBA fans so upset. Per the rulebook of the league, Embiid is getting fouled on almost every scoring attempt he has. Opposing bigs always tug at his jersey with their opposite hand to slow him down, and those swiping down at his wrist on all his face-up elbow jumpers is a letter of the law foul. Embiid is not above flailing to make sure the referee can see the foul has been committed. If someone puts their hand on his wrist, he’s not playing through it, he’s just quickly rising up, showing the official the obvious foul, and trotting to the free throw line. It’s the smart thing to do to make sure that opponents stop fouling him. Embiid knows it’s better to swallow your pride and go for the foul draw rather than to do the fake tough guy routine and play through the contact.
And this season in particular, Sixers fans have pointed out that national and social media is only #bigmad about Embiid’s free throws because he makes them. Giannis Antetokounmpo shoots only 0.4 fewer foul shots per game than Embiid, but he shoots 66.7% from the charity stripe, while Embiid clocks in at 88.7%. Put another way, if the Giannis shot the same percentage from the foul line as Embiid, he’d be averaging 2.5 more points per game, and be right next to No. 21 in Philadelphia in both efficiency and scoring volume. Both giants will themselves to the foul line multiple times each game. But Giannis only makes 2 out of every 3 shots from there, while Embiid is flat out one of the best shooters in the world.
All of those things are viable arguments as to why Embiid is hated for racking up 12 free throw attempts each night. But while each of them contribute to the sentiment, none of them are the actual underlying reason.
People hate Joel Embiid and his free throws because they think that Embiid is a loser.
That might seem silly, and it is. Why should the Sixers’ inability to make it past the second round cause non-Philadelphians to utterly hate the way Embiid plays basketball? But that’s what rings culture and mainstream sports talk is driven by. Embiid doesn’t win in the playoffs, and thus the way he’s playing the sport must be wrong, apparently.
Think back to the two most recent MVP winners before Embiid.
For years, Nikola Jokic doubters attacked the big Serbian’s defense and were posting about how the Nuggets could never win the title with that guy anchoring them. But then they watched the Joker maul everyone in his path on his way to a ring, and that talk stopped pretty quickly.
The “Giannis has no bag” and “the Bucks are fraudulent” jokes reigned supreme after their 2020 playoff flameout, but then everyone watched the Greek Freak drop 50 points in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. Sure, jokes about Giannis being nothing more than a football player spamming HB dive all game are still out there, but they’re not nearly as loud or supported as they once were, because everyone knows that Giannis has a ring.
Heck, the best example is a different former Joel Embiid teammate — Jimmy Butler. From 2017-19, Jimmy got talked about in the same way that Harden has been talked about the past few years. Go back and read the headlines when the Sixers traded for him in late 2018. He was a locker room cancer. He forced his way out of two straight teams in Chicago and Minnesota, then left Philadelphia after one playoff failure.
But none of that matters to people anymore. Now all they can remember about Jimmy is what’s happened the last four years — two NBA Finals runs, three Eastern Conference Finals appearances, playoff wins over the Sixers, Celtics, and Bucks. Jimmy more than anyone might actually be the worst foul baiter in the league. He does the same leg flailing, arm hooking that drive people up a wall when it’s used by Embiid or Harden, yet it’s practically his only way to score during the regular season, as Jimmy’s numbers are nowhere close to the monster ones that Embiid and Harden put up.
Not to mention Jimmy sits out a ton of games in a league that decries load management as its biggest problem. Turn on your TV, and you’ll hear people complaining about Embiid ducking games and sitting out. But look at Basketball Reference, and you’ll see the actual numbers — Embiid has played in more regular season games than Jimmy each of the last two years, and has only missed 10 games this season, while Jimmy has already been on the sidelines 15 times.
But no one is going to remember that. What they’ll remember is the Heat making the Finals twice in four years, and Jimmy having multiple clutch, heroic moments along the way.
History is written by the winners, and so far guys like Jimmy, Jokic, and Giannis are winners. And unfair to him as it may be, most general NBA media and fans have relegated Embiid as a loser.
There’s a kernel of truth in that Embiid’s free throws and foul baiting tactics are less effective in the playoffs, as referees more often swallow their whistles in those moments. Embiid averaged 2.4 fewer free throws per game during the 2022-23 postseason. But truthfully, no one would care if the Sixers’ role players made their open threes in Game 6 of the Celtics’ series. Or if Ben Simmons had showed up for Games 5, 6, or 7 in the Hawks’ series. Or if Greg Monroe hadn’t immediately given up a 9-0 run during Game 7 of the Raptors’ series. The “Embiid is a flopper and ruins basketball” narrative feeds into the “Embiid is a playoff choker” narrative. In reality, it was only last year’s series against Boston where Joel wasn’t up to the task, he was actually pretty brilliant against both Toronto in 2019 and Atlanta in 2021.
But no one is going to remember that. They’ll remember that Embiid shot a ton of free throws, and always lost in the second round of the playoffs. It’s not fair to him, but it’s just the way things work.
There’s always going to be Embiid haters, and they’re always going to point out how No. 21 falls on the floor way too much, and bemoan the unstoppable nature of his regular season scoring. But the actual reason the volume of Embiid hate is so loud is that the Sixers haven’t won big in the playoffs yet.
If this really is “The Year”, and the Sixers finally make it past the second round, and maybe even win it all, you’re not going to hear the same whining about Embiid’s foul drawing. Nothing will have actually changed about the way Embiid plays, but people will remember that the way he played led to him being a champion, instead of a second round loser.
It’s not a fair or really even logical way to evaluate Embiid. But it’s just the way things work.
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