Joel Embiid is doing things I never imagined he’d do again. After an MVP campaign in 2023, an All-World performance in 2024 that was cut short due to injury and a disastrous season for both him and the franchise all around last year, I was pretty out on this whole ordeal. Oh, the Sixers added 59-year-old Paul George on a contract worth approximately $5 billion into the mix as well? Awesome stuff, everyone. I’m so glad I devoted my life to writing about this sports scene!
I’m jaded, but something is
changing.
Despite the mountains of snow piled up around Philadelphia, my heart continues to thaw when it comes to this season’s Sixers team.
VJ Edgecombe is a foundational guard already in his rookie season. Tyrese Maxey will be an All-Star starter in a few weeks. George himself even turned back the clock nearly a decade and dropped 32 points with nine made threes in a victory over Milwaukee on Tuesday night. What’s shaken up my ever-seesawing feelings about the Sixers as an overall entity as of late, however, is truly Embiid.
In 12 games this calendar year, Embiid is averaging a crisp 28-8-4 while being an efficient beast and living at the free throw line once more. Even if the crowds down in South Philadelphia may not be as raucous as they once were, I am having fun watching this team again! I want the arena to be back to what it was too!
Embiid remains a divisive figure, not just nationally, but locally as well. Look at the replies to any media member on social media and you’ll see people complaining about Embiid’s absences, injuries and playoff shortcomings as much as you’ll see fawning devotion for torrid scoring and what he’s meant to the team for so long.
You see performances like Monday where the team was down literally 50 points after three quarters sans both Embiid and George to a hapless Hornets team and thinking, “We’re an injury away from these two old, fragile players from this being a twice-weekly occurrence.” It’s enough to make people not want to buy back into this all after dedicating so much to the Process era, the build-up, the hype and the second-round ceiling they could never break through.
There is something freeing, however, even if it may ultimately prove foolish, about allowing yourself to be sucked back into the Sixers’ postseason aspirations even after everything that’s transpired. Embiid is the lone connective tissue throughout all of this. He was the draft pick that stemmed from the Sixers’ first tank-a-palooza season. He’s withstood a revolving door of co-stars. He’s battled through injures that appeared career-threatening at various times and is still hanging, still dropping 30 points with ease whenever he’s out there on the court.
I’m well aware of Embiid’s injury history what that means every April and May. I’m under no pretense that I’m watching a team that will be playing in the NBA Finals in June, but I’m watching one that, come the spring, will have me soaking up the warmer weather, breaking out my latest Sixers eBay find and hopelessly dreaming, as I’ve done for the last quarter of a century.
