Denizens in the City of Brotherly Love were, no doubt, sending lots of it to Joel Embiid following his sidelining last Friday. The initial prognosis wasn’t good; he crumpled to the floor in pain after landing awkwardly off a ferocious dunk midway through the third quarter of the Sixers’ match against the Wizards. Replays were cringe-inducing, to say the least; the evident hyper-extension of his left knee conjured thoughts of a serious injury, never mind that he was able to walk to the locker room of his own volition. And, based on magnetic resonance imaging scans that show no damage apart from a bone bruise, the fans’ prayers were heard and answered.
To be sure, Embiid’s well-documented susceptibility to physical trauma had all and sundry expecting the worst. His potential had the Sixers drafting him third overall in 2014 despite indications of vulnerability to pounding in his lone year as a Jayhawk. He then missed his first two, and large chunks of the next four, seasons in the National Basketball Assocation. During the times he has played, he’s every bit the two-way force scouts pegged him to be. Unfortunately, his availability has been spotty at best; between 2016 and 2020, he has suited up in all of 209 games — as much an indication of his poor conditioning as of his relative brittleness.
Up until Friday, however, Embiid had been solid in the Sixers’ 2020-21 campaign. He still got to miss a contest here and there; that said, he managed to suit up in four out of every games on the schedule, and how. His traditional stats are so transcendent as to draw comparisons to Shaquille O’Neal’s at the turn of the millennium. In the pace-and-space era, it’s no small feat to be mentioned alongside the last center to have taken the league by storm. And then there are his advanced metrics, which rightly place him at the top of any list for the Most Valuable Player award.
It remains to be seen how Embiid’s latest brush with injury will affect his bid for the Maurice Podoloff Trophy or, more importantly, the Sixers’ designs on the Larry O’Brien Trophy. He’s projected to be out for at least two weeks, by which time other stalwarts of the blue and red will have burned rubber in another eight games at minimum. Needless to say, what he does after he comes back will provide clarity to queries on his, and their, fitness to compete for the hardware. That hoops followers are breathing signs of relief even though he’ll be out anew speaks volumes of his fragile physique. In any case, there’s no other choice but to wait.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
