Joel Embiid has arrived in a big way for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Finally healthy, the 22-year-old made his NBA regular-season debut on Wednesday night, more than two years after being drafted. Though the Philadelphia 76ers lost a nail-biter to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Embiid racked up 20 points, seven rebounds and two blocks, even draining a three-pointer to the crowd’s immense pleasure.
The night, in many ways, was surreal. Embiid was seeing his hard work pay off, and Sixers fans were getting a taste of what it feels like for the team’s much-maligned, thrice-reinvented Process paying dividends. If you asked Embiid a year ago, though, whether he thought that he’d ever make it to this moment, his answer might have been no. It was around this time last he considered leaving the Sixers and the NBA for good, as Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins relayed in his fabulous piece on the seven-footer:
Last October, the day before the first anniversary of Arthur’s death, The Cauldron ran a distressing story about Embiid’s arduous rehab. Ensuing headlines focused on his exaggerated affection for Shirley Temples. You’d have thought he was chugging Moonshine laced with grenadine. Upset by both timing and content, Embiid considered quitting the NBA and returning to Cameroon, where he could honor his brother in peace. Maybe he’d go back to volleyball, his first chosen sport. His father had warned him about the dangers of hoops.
“I wanted to get away from all this drama,” Embiid recalls, “and stay away.” He had been in America for four years and lived in four cities, a hardwood nomad, always moving alone. “I never had a girlfriend before, but back then I had some type of girlfriend.”? Embiid says. “One day I told her my whole story.”
Fortunately for the Sixers, and their fans, Embiid did not quit but instead renewed his rehabilitation efforts and commitment to improvement. And that’s a huge deal, perhaps bigger than most fans outside of Philadelphia will truly understand.
On Wednesday, in Wells Fargo Center, for the first time ever, you could not just the outline, but the active infrastructure of a bright future playing out for the Sixers. For the first time in a long time, they weren’t waiting. Yes, they were without Ben Simmons and Nerlens Noel. And sure, Embiid was on a minutes limit, logging just 22. But him taking the court at all was always going to be a victory. That he played as well as he did and flashed glimpses of how much better he’ll get is, in retrospect, a dream.
Suddenly the Sixers’ future, its process, looks to be in capable hands.
