Context matters when breaking down sports.
“A banged-up Joel Embiid lost in the second round of the NBA Playoffs,” sounds like a familiar story, but that’s only if you ignore everything that’s happened over the last two-plus years.
Sure, there was plenty of disappointment after the Sixers were crushed in Game 4 Sunday by the New York Knicks to complete a sweep, but there was also plenty of optimism. They made the second round of the playoffs after a 24-win season. They came back from a 3-1 deficit
to defeat the Boston Celtics in the postseason for the first time since 1982. Tyrese Maxey took another leap and VJ Edgecombe had one hell of a rookie season.
And Joel Embiid played basketball. At times, he even played it at an extremely high level. If you weren’t sure that could happen this season, you weren’t alone.
“I thought I was done. That’s the best way to put it,” Embiid said. “I came into this year not knowing where I was going to be, how long I was going to play, if I was even going to play, based on how the knee was the last few years.”
The former MVP played in 38 games this season and eight more in the playoffs. After a rough start, his numbers from his last 29 regular-season games were, well, Joel Embiid-esque. He averaged 29.6, 8.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.2 blocks in 33.5 minutes a game. He shot 50.9% from the field and 37.6% from three during that span.
Of course, the appendectomy came at the worst possible time, with Embiid trending in a positive direction health-wise and the team beginning to coalesce. When all seemed lost against the Celtics in the first round, Embiid played his guts out in Games 5, 6 and 7 to complete a historic comeback from a 3-1 deficit.
After that, there simply wasn’t much left in the tank. Embiid was dealing with a right hip issue, which he seemed to indicate was a complication from his recent surgery. Remember, he returned just 17 days post-op and it’s a procedure that cuts through muscle. It was pretty remarkable he returned at all, let alone carried his team to a Game 7 victory in TD Garden.
The most positive news from Embiid as his 2025-26 season ends: his knees feel good.
Embiid is optimistic his most recent procedure and work with Dr. Jonathan Glashow will allow him to be more available, something he admits led to a lot of the team’s inconsistencies this past season.
“That’s where I put it on me,” he said, “where I felt like I wasn’t around for much of the season, for a lot of things, and moving forward, understanding what it takes when it comes to my body, and what we have to do as a group to make sure that I get to play every game. I feel like we found that solution, so it’ll be better next year.”
So, this will be an offseason where Embiid gets to work on his game and not worry about rehabbing yet another knee surgery. It’ll take some time to recover from his most recent ailments, but there’s nothing to suggest those will be long-term hurdles.
Aside from his body, Embiid does seem to be in a great place mentally. He sat postgame with his son, Arthur, who looked ready for bed. He was asked a question about his legacy, but it wasn’t something he wasn’t interested in discussing — at least as far as on the basketball court.
“I don’t know. I don’t care,” he said. “I got this beautiful young man. You guys might’ve taken away my chance to put my daughter to sleep. My wife is going to be extremely mad at me.”
Again, there was disappointment, but no anger or finger-pointing or doomerism.
But there was trolling, of course.
“Maybe I got to go to church more so I don’t have those type of things right before the playoffs,” Embiid said. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m cursed. I don’t know. Maybe Philadelphia is cursed. …
“That’s a joke, but, yeah, just got to keep doing the right things over and over and hope that at some point it changes.”
