I Want To Have A Take on Joel Embiid, But It’s Complicated

Spike doesn't know exactly what to feel or not to feel about the big man yet this season.

Watching Joel Embiid talk after the Sixers’ truly pathetic loss to the Celtics on Thursday night was a pretty singular experience.

“The way I was playing a year ago, it's not the way I'm playing right now. It sucks. But I believe ... I probably need to fix the problem and then I'll be back at that level, but it's hard to have trust when you're not yourself,” he told reporters in the locker room, in a tone that is familiar to Joel, but certainly more muted than usual. “No excuses, it’s just the way it is. Gotta figure it out and try to get better.”

I say it’s singular because I’ve got two battling emotions. On one hand, I want to be furious. Here is Joel, saying “no excuses” while offering specific excuses; hardly the first time we’ve seen such a postgame performance from the Big Guy. Here he is talking about “fixing” a health problem that has no direct fix other than to keep playing and hope it gets better. He also talked about how it’s good for the team to have him out on the court even in this limited way, in a game where they got their doors blown off from start to finish.

I want to be furious for me and for all of us, because the dream that we all had about how this should end is most likely dying right in front of our eyes, and Embiid’s lack of attention to health and conditioning, casual attitude toward practice and team activities and proclivity for disappearing in big moments is certainly a significant reason why we’re here. There is something therapeutic about being angry about this, yelling about him, and demanding the team move on.

But I also feel a lot of sympathy knowing I’m watching a guy who is probably deep within himself coming to terms with the fact that he will most likely never again be the dominant guy he’s been in previous seasons. Whether he’s disappointed with himself for wasting what opportunity he did have, or sad and frustrated that his body won’t cooperate this season (likely some combination of both), it’s coming out in these nuggets of false hope about fixing a problem that seems like it’s only getting worse to convince himself, to convince us, to convince someone. It’s kind of heartbreaking to watch a giant, formerly a destroyer of worlds, a presence so dominant and physical that the best players in the world have no chance, realize he’s mortal – just like the rest of us.

While these emotions are warring inside of me, there’s also the realization that there might not be anything anyone can do about it at the moment. Of course in one sense, I’m talking about the injury itself – but beyond that, what to do about it from a team standpoint. Really what the hell do you do? Do you shut everything down and give it one more chance next year because you convince yourself maybe we’ll get lucky and get a miracle healthy next season? If you believe that ship has sailed, is the right move to rebuild really to have to attach picks to him to send him to Charlotte or Sacramento or New Orleans or something? I can’t believe we’ll get positive value back for him at the moment. Since the answer to both of these things is probably no, you’re left with something like the Ryan Howard situation, where you watch this once-great performer, for whom you have such fond memories, disintegrate as nothing more than a salary number that prevents you from doing anything cool with the rest of the roster. It’s hard to believe we felt that way about one of the greatest hitters we’ve ever seen in Philadelphia, but I promise you we did.

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I say all of this to ask for your leeway while I inevitably end up expressing any one of these emotions or opinions over the next few months as it all unfolds. Because I mean all of them, and none of them simultaneously. I will always be a Joel guy but I’m not even sure what that means at the current moment. I don’t think any of us do.