Philadelphia 76ers star big man will have new teammates with LeBron James and Jaylen Brown but the conversation about his weight remains the same.
Folks who have covered the NBA for a long time, like anyone in any industry, start to notice trends within the calendar. As the calendar turns from August to September and the summer turns into autumn, sportswriters have written some version of the same story every year for more than a decade.
Embiid isn't the only player whose weight is in focus. Even if players gained literally just two pounds, it's still somehow newsworthy. But with Embiid, it's especially noticeable. LeBron said he's seen Embiid put a lot of work on his body, though we've heard this song before.
Last year on nearly the exact same
date, as others noticed, I wrote for this site that Embiid looked "noticeably slimmer" heading into the new year. Once more, a video of a new-look Embiid has gone viral. In theory, this ought to help him stay healthier during the season. In practice, that's not exactly how it's shaped up each year.
This time, even though the seven-time All-Star trolled that he "gained" a lot of weight, Chris Haynes noted that Embiid has (obviously) lost a "considerable amount of weight" before the 2026-27 campaign.
Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid has dropped a considerable amount of weight. pic.twitter.com/Of1rI0aZS6
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) September 28, 2026
Embiid weight before the NBA
First, the story was about how skinny he was in 2011 (when he reportedly weighed approximately 180 pounds) compared to how fit he looked shortly after he was drafted in August 2014.
Then, in January 2015, an outlet reported that Embiid went from 250 pounds in college at Kansas to 300 pounds with the 76ers. According to Keith Pompey, the big man was not always "a willing workout participant" and that he had "blown off" conditioning drills. Embiid refuted the report while another outlet claimed he reached at most 275 pounds.
SI.com reported later that year in October 2015 that Embiid's "conditioning and dietary habits" were a "constant source of strife" for the front office. This, when Embiid became obsessed with drinking Shirley Temple beverages by the pitcher, was all before he even played his first NBA game.
In September 2016, The Ringer attributed the weight to a "significant" amount of muscle but that it didn't slow his quickness.
Before he finally made his debut, after "incessant" weight checks, former 76ers head coach Brett Brown explained in October 2016 that Embiid had potentially increased weight from 275 pounds to 300 pounds because his injuries prevented him from running.
Embiid weight during NBA career
The following season in October 2017, per ESPN, reported that Embiid called his "ideal" weight between 275 and 280 pounds. He claimed he weighed 283 pounds at the time while Brown argued less weight would add far more fluidity and more years to a contract.
That same month, Embiid told New York Times that he wanted to trim weight from his "285-pound" frame. His rookie campaign was shortened to only 25.4 minutes per game across just 31 appearances. By February 2018, The Athletic reported that Embiid "eventually got his conditioning and weight under control" when he made his first appearance in an NBA All-Star Game.
Like clockwork, you can guess what happened the following year. It was September 2019 when ESPN's Brian Windhorst reported Embiid lost 20 pounds. The big man told reporters he hadn't done "anything differently" and still hadn't reached his goal weight. The team roster listed him at 250 pounds and he said he planned to play like a guard.
ESPN's Ramona Shelburne reported in 2020 that Embiid a nutritionist to help him "transform" his body. The nutritionist told him not to weigh himself because "fueling" was more important and that sweat from workouts played such a big role in the number on the scale.
You get the idea. This is an annual conversation and it's led to very little, if any, substantive change. Despite him coming in to each season with similar goals, the cycle is the same. Rinse, lather, repeat.
Even after winning the Most Valuable Player award in 2023, the following year, his fluctuating weight was still a focus for the center.
ESPN reported in September 2024 that Embiid lost between 25 and 30 pounds and that he still wanted to lose more. As we mentioned earlier, we had the same conversation last season.
How many times can we hear a new version of the same story before it becomes obvious that history repeats itself? This time, with LeBron and Jaylen Brown and improvements from Maxey, maybe it's enough for Embiid to win a championship. Until then, conversations about Embiid's weight are simply tired.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: NBA’s obsession with Joel Embiid’s fluctuating weight is overplayed
