Philly Front Office

Joel Embiid played on November 30th against the Hawks. He didn’t exactly play well, but he played. Before that it was November 8th against the Toronto Raptors, a 130-120 win in the first game of a back-to-back. He played 26 minutes, scored 29 points, and there was nothing unusual about him missing the next game as there were no setbacks reported. He missed 9 games between those starts. He missed last night against the Nets too. What’s going on?

It would be easy to place this injury as related to his lingering left knee issues and his offseason surgery, but that wouldn’t be true. His current injury is his right knee. The designation for gambling purposes is “right knee injury management.” What the hell does that mean? He was never given any injury distinction in his right knee and now it’s being managed? That’s not how it works. How can you manage an injury that was never declared? In reality, the leg is in pain and not working right and there is nothing they can really do about it.

As frustrating as it is, this is just how it is with Embiid. When will it end? Well, maybe in 3.5 years when his debilitating contract is up.¹ Wait, why maybe? Because there is a chance that this whole charade of Embiid ramping up, getting re-evaluated, and being day-to-day ends before that. I am talking about medical retirement. This is the process of a player being declared physically unable to play by a panel of independent doctors. For this to even be possible, the player must go one whole year without playing. If this whole series of events plays out, Embiid would still get paid his entire contract, but it would no longer be on the Sixers salary cap.

Is this going to happen next December? No. Embiid will play again this season? Probably. The writing is on the wall though. His body simply cannot withstand playing in the NBA anymore. It’s not about getting him ready to play in a game, it’s about getting him ready to play in the next game. He has no ability to recover effectively enough for the regular season let alone the playoffs.

I love Joel Embiid and I feel terribly bad for him. His body isn’t injured, it’s broken and it can’t be fixed. If simply playing 25 minutes after months and months of rehab makes it too hard to play, and there is no surgery out there to actually help him, then it can only be one thing. Over.

Don’t get me wrong, I do not want this. I wish he were able to play with some kind of consistency. It’s never going to happen. Medical retirement may not be on the table next year. It may not ever be on the table. There’s a chance that every time he plays it could be the last time he plays. So, set your watches. It’s been 3 days. Last time it was 22 days. At some point, he’ll get to 365 and we’ll all know it is finally, mercifully over.

1. The monster 3/$193m extension he signed before last season doesn’t kick in until NEXT season. ↩︎