Joel Embiid Actually Feels Responsible for This
Joel Embiid Actually Feels Responsible for This
Embiid's new extension is the latest evidence that despite everything, he does actually care about winning -- and being proven right -- in Philly specifically.
I've spent enough of my life thinking about Joel Embiid that it seems almost impossible to me for there to exist an angle on his life, career and legacy that I had not previously considered. But on the last RTRS podcast, before delivering the latest update to his ongoing take about how all forms of art and the artists behind them are fundamentally lame, Mike said something about Joel in conjunction with his latest extension that really resonated with me in a new and unexpected way.
"He had every reason to leave, many times," Mike reasoned. "And to decide that he didn't want to leave, and he wants to stay and last his whole career here... I think it's because he feels, like, committed to this project... he is the head of the project. But he also could bail and go be a star somewhere else... he feels a passion to prove everyone wrong, and the way to do that is to win a championship in Philadelphia. And that is, weirdly, like, the same goal of this podcast."
It was the phrasing of committed to this project that really struck me. Because it's true: Embiid's three-year, $192 million extension is just the latest piece of evidence that not only is our franchise committed to Joel, but he's just as committed to us -- in a way that goes beyond geography or stubbornness or even blind loyalty. He wants to win here because he still sees this as Sam Hinkie's grand experiment, and because he still sees himself as its linchpin. He wants to win here -- maybe kinda needs to win here -- because he craves the opportunity to deliver that ultimate we were right, y'all just as badly as we do.
Of course, every great basketball player wants to win, talks about how much they want to win, talks about how committed they are to winning. And every great basketball player wants to do that in the city they are currently in -- that's nothing new or interesting. But with only a handful of historical exceptions, those great players only want to win where they are simply because that happens to be where they currently are, and if and when they're moved to a new locale, they'll want to win there in much the same way. Kyrie Irving wanted to play his whole career in Cleveland, until he asked for a trade to Boston, at which point that's where he wanted to be for the long haul, until he got to Brooklyn, where... you get the idea. It's all contextual, and it's all transmutable.
And of course, it goes the other way 98% of the time, too. All NBA fans want to win a championship with Their Guys, but if dealing Their Guys meant getting better guys and a better chance at actually winning a championship, the overwhelming majority of them would sign up for it in a heartbeat. Did you happen to catch a great deal of garment-rending in Boston this summer over the fact that they finally won a championship, but alas, it came without longtime franchise heartbeat Marcus Smart, traded to the Grizzlies as part of the three-team deal that brought over Kristaps Porzingis the prior offseason? Of course not: They were too busy getting blasted in celebration and lining the streets of Beantown with green-colored vomit to shed tears over those left behind. Banners fly forever, sentimentality is for losers.
Maybe it's naive to consider the Sixers' relationship with Joel Embiid fundamentally different -- and maybe one day we'll all really be put to the test of just whether he and we are so committed to this thing that Hinkie started 11 years ago that we'd pass up a better chance at a title to keep fighting against the current in the name of Processdom. But for now at least, Joel has proven at every turn that he really does want to be here, want to win here. He's endured countless personal and professional hardships and humiliations in his 10 years as a Sixer, and yet he's never demanded a trade, never done a free agency tour, never publicly flirted with another franchise (despite Jimmy Butler's many thirst traps). When he puts pressure on the Sixers, through the media or through his own comments, it's always to make the team more competitive, never to expedite his own exit. For whatever drama we've gone through with Joel over the years, he's never given us any reason to doubt that he wants to be here, wants to play here, wants to win here, wants to be right here.
And I think we've basically shown him the same commitment -- not only in giving him nearly $200 million for potentially the final three years of his career (where it would be a miracle if he was still playing 60 games a season, let alone at a $65 million AAV level), but by continuing to build the team around him, improving the roster in a way that, at least in theory, makes things both easier and safer for our franchise center. And for all the improvements we've made, there's been no one brought in who might challenge Jo's status as project manager; I do think it would be something of a betrayal of this mutual commitment at this point to bring in a player like LeBron (or maybe even Jimmy) who would come in and instantly start fucking with the team's Asana tasks. After taking responsibility for our franchise's whole thing for a solid decade -- and now signing on to do so for another half of one -- he deserves the chance to continue steering the ship for as long as he's at least marginally fit to do so.
As we approach the 23rd consecutive Most Important Season of Joel Embiid's Career -- and also the 23rd consecutive season of my spending September and October emotionally hedging against another likely heartbreaking Sixers campaign -- moments like this are a good reminder that what we've experienced with Joel does go beyond the stats, the awards, the postseason success (and lack thereof). There's a unique connection he has not just to the city or the fanbase, but to this era of Sixers basketball, that we're not likely to ever see replicated with another Philadelphia athlete in our lifetime. It makes the failures that much more painful, of course, but it also gives us a reason to keep hoping, because the ultimate success would be that much more meaningful. And even if it never happens, that doesn't mean that we weren't still right, y'all, just to be able to go through all of this with him.
Andrew Unterberger writes for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, as part of the 'If Not, Pick Will Convey as Two Second-Rounders' section of the site. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AUGetoffmygold and can also read him at Billboard.
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