What an exhausting roller coaster this Embiid-Olympics experience has been ALREADY (and they haven't even started the real games yet!) and this piece encapsulates everything. In a matter of four games Embiid has gone from YMCA old guy who grifts on offense and just pushes people on defense to doing things that should be impossible for a …
What an exhausting roller coaster this Embiid-Olympics experience has been ALREADY (and they haven't even started the real games yet!) and this piece encapsulates everything. In a matter of four games Embiid has gone from YMCA old guy who grifts on offense and just pushes people on defense to doing things that should be impossible for a guy with his build to do. Still obviously not all the way back individually and maddening to watch him play alongside other supremely skilled players who have been playing since they were in diapers (for the most part). At times, his play speed and instincts are jarringly slower/off when compared to his USA teammates and it's crazy to say this about an NBA MVP, but it's as if basketball is a second language to Embiid -- he's fluent and has mastered all the grammar rules, but communication with native language speakers is still a tad off.
I hope he keeps on proving everybody, including me, wrong.
What an exhausting roller coaster this Embiid-Olympics experience has been ALREADY (and they haven't even started the real games yet!) and this piece encapsulates everything. In a matter of four games Embiid has gone from YMCA old guy who grifts on offense and just pushes people on defense to doing things that should be impossible for a guy with his build to do. Still obviously not all the way back individually and maddening to watch him play alongside other supremely skilled players who have been playing since they were in diapers (for the most part). At times, his play speed and instincts are jarringly slower/off when compared to his USA teammates and it's crazy to say this about an NBA MVP, but it's as if basketball is a second language to Embiid -- he's fluent and has mastered all the grammar rules, but communication with native language speakers is still a tad off.
I hope he keeps on proving everybody, including me, wrong.