Philly Front Office

Joel Embiid is the most real athlete we’ve ever seen. He is probably my favorite athlete of all time, but it’s not for what he has achieved on the court. He is just so damn relatable, even if there is no one like him.

Professional athletes are physically different from the average person in ways that us normies can’t really fathom.  Being able to throw a ball 100 mph, run ungodly fast, or to simply and gracefully move in unthinkable ways is like having a superpower.  I remember playing tennis in high school and being okay-ish, but our #1 could beat me easily.  I then watched him get pummeled by the best player in the county, who was then crushed by the best player in the state, who was then killed by one of the top high schoolers in the country, who certainly wasn’t anywhere even close to one of the best players in the world.  Each level up is exponentially better.  Because we can’t really understand these talents, it’s easy to lump all of these elite level athletes into the same group.  That ignores one big similarity though, we are all human.

From our homes and our couches, it is easy to get mad at athletes when they choke or look checked out.  We get mad when an athlete is out of shape or unprepared, or hasn’t improved.  I’m not even saying we are wrong to do so, but it ignores the humanity of these professionals.  What would you do in their position?  I’m sure everyone believes that they would be Kobe Bryant or Lebron James dedicating every waking second to their health and their craft, but that’s not true.  Not even a little bit.  Hell, you are probably reading this instead of working right now. 

Professional athletes have access to things the average person also can’t fathom.  They are with the biggest celebrities, attending the most lavish parties, in the most exclusive locations, coveted by the best-looking people, and offered opportunities that would probably literally frighten the average person.  You, the fan, want them to ignore that to be in the gym at 5am?  Would you?  You would turn down the best food, the most expensive alcohol, and several women throwing themselves at you to wake up early EVERY SINGLE DAY?  Please. 

Let’s say you can get past that.  Now there’s the other stuff.  You are constantly scrutinized by faceless people who have no idea what you are going through and can’t do what you can do.  Your job is done with at least 20,000 people watching and yelling at you live and millions more watching at home.  Half the men in the world can’t even use a public urinal due to stage fright, but you can handle the pressure of all those critical eyes?  Don’t even get me started on other common performance anxieties. 

Then there’s the millions of dollars in your bank account.  I know not every athlete is rich, but the stars are.  If you had a $100m guaranteed contract, are you going to care about being early to every practice and giving it your all because some unathletic 50 year old is yelling at you?  How do you feel about your own boss who you know is doing nothing and probably just getting ready for his tee time?  And before you get to “that’s what the money’s for” ask yourself how much money you saved when you were in your 20s?  Yeah, during that decade when you made all your best decisions; when you really cared about what your parents and society expected?

And still, no matter about all of this, they are still human.  Humans see that there is a tomorrow and maybe what they are going through today doesn’t matter.  Or maybe it matters too much and there is no tomorrow.  Humans get nervous.  Humans think too much.  Humans make mistakes.  Humans can be victims or heroes of probability.  Humans get hurt.  These are all things humans can’t do anything about either.

This was all preamble to the life and times of Joel Embiid.  He came to the United States from Africa as a 7 foot teenager, without his family, to play a game he barely knew anything about.  People just told him he would be good, and he was.  Basketball came very easy to him.  After one year of college, he didn’t know any better, but enough people thought he was one of the most talented players they had ever seen.  Cool, right? He was drafted #3 overall at 20 years old.  He was also hurt.  The injuries were worse than expected.  One season lost, but that wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened. It allowed him to get acclimated to a new life. His foot didn’t heal right though. Then it morphed into a second lost year. Two years he doesn’t play.  While he’s battling the uncertainty of his recovery and his weight issues, his brother dies back home.  Depression hits and it hits hard.  He is only 22 years old now. 

Still, he perseveres.  He truly wanted to quit, to go home, but he held on. Once he is finally cleared to play, he isn’t just good, he’s better, he’s great.  Then, again, injury strikes.  After only 32 games he misses the rest of his first real season.  That’s three seasons almost completely gone. Regardless, the Sixers saw enough to promise him $150m.  At this point, Joel Embiid has probably played less than 100 basketball games in his entire life.

Still, he perseveres. Did I mention that he’s funny?  Everything he says online turns to gold. He’s flirting with Rihanna and having fun. He’s the toast of a town that is not traditionally nice or forgiving to professional athletes, especially ones that are hurt.  They see him as a savior in fact.  Years of losses have piled up and turned the fanbase rabid, we need Embiid to be good.  We need him to be great. He is so good that he is considered one of the best players in the world.  None of this even seems very hard for him.

Not all at once, but things start to go wrong.  The team itself is regularly inundated in turmoil.  His teammates have bad luck and quirky debilitating injuries.  Embiid himself gets random injuries including breaking his face on a teammate’s shoulder and Bell’s Palsy. Then there’s the playoff disappointment.  Nothing goes right in the playoffs.  Every year, there’s another injury, or a ball bounces on the rim 4 times, or your point guard refuses to end an opponent’s life with a dunk.  It’s always something.  But we don’t care about that.  We only care that the Sixers lost; that Embiid lost.  But he had a legitimate excuse!  Did he though?  Maybe that’s not really what happened.  Maybe he just choked.  Maybe he can’t cut it.  He’s the MVP, but then didn’t show up against the Celtics.  How will he follow that up?  Yeah, he scored 70 points, but now he’s hurt again.  Same old Embiid in the playoffs.  Did he come back from injury too soon? He can’t do anything right.  It’s great he’s playing in the Olympics!  Why is he playing in the Olympics? Team USA would not have won a gold medal without him!  Of course you have to give him an extension!  Why isn’t he playing? Didn’t he just play in the Olympics? Did he just punch a reporter? Why on Earth did we give him an extension?  He never should have played in the Olympics!  He can’t even move.  He’s not even trying.  He needs surgery.  There is no surgery.  He’s getting surgery.  AND THAT’S THE SHORT VERSION!!!

See what I’m getting at?  In a lot of ways, he is the least human and most human athlete we have ever seen.  Least human in that he’s a 7 foot athletic, dynamo of a human being.  Most human in that he clearly doesn’t know a good way to handle what is happening to him.  When everything was going well, he reveled in the attention and the limelight.  Now that it’s not, he is getting into fights with reporters (he shouldn’t have hit him, but Marcus Hayes makes his money purposely baiting reactions like this) and is regularly completely out of shape.  His leg is clearly deteriorating but he’s done nothing to help the situation, like keeping an extra 50 pounds off it.  He’s not in the gym 24/7.  He’s not practicing early. He’s not eating right.  He’s doing what most of us would do with his life. 

It’s hard to blame him when we would all do the same thing.  He was blessed with unbelievable talent and worked extremely hard to get where he is.  He overcame SO MUCH! Once the roadblocks and obstacles started to add up and the incentive and will to put in the extra work dried up, he couldn’t find a way out. Last year looked like a person struggling to come to grips with his body betraying him. There had to be a way to get it back, the ease and joy of his youth. There isn’t. He can’t just go out there and have the game be easy any more. The team says he doesn’t need surgery and that he has to get used to his new reality. He wants someone to fix what’s wrong. Not that he isn’t hurt, but there likely isn’t anything to fix. To anyone who groans when they reach for something or blew out their knee screwing around with their kids, this is not that. Imagine you’re a surgeon and you can’t keep your hand from shaking. Imagine you are an attorney and your memory isn’t sharp anymore. A fundamental part of his livelihood is likely gone forever. A surgeon can probably still consult and an attorney can provide great advice, but they can never again be what they were. Imagine what it must feel like to have what makes you special taken from you. You used to take it for granted and now it’s gone.

Joel Embiid was never Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. He was never the kind of athlete who would maniacally do anything to rip out the soul of his opponent. He was just really, REALLY talented. We can’t fault him for that. After all, we’d do the same thing. I just hope he can come to terms with himself; not just for us Sixers fans, but for him.