CAMDEN, N.J. — Joel Embiid is aching to get back on the court. The Philadelphia 76ers center has already missed a month of action and will still miss more time as his left knee heals.
The 76ers announced on Tuesday, February 6 that Embiid underwent a meniscus procedure and that he would be re-evaluated after four weeks. Roughly three weeks after the operation, he said that he was “feeling good” and that his goal is to make a return this season.
“Obviously everything has to go right as far as getting healthy and being as close as I'm supposed to be. But yeah, that's the plan,” Embiid said. The 76ers superstar added that there’s no timeline for his return and that “you can never tell all the body reacts, especially once you start ramping up. It all depends on how it feels. And if it feels great, then that's good. And if it doesn't feel like it's right, then you gotta keep going.”
Embiid was dealing with knee soreness during a road trip in late January. In a loss to the Golden State Warriors in which he moved with no burst or fluidity, Jonathan Kuminga dove at a loose ball and landed on Embiid's knee, sending him into immense pain. He received an MRI soon after that revealed a meniscus injury. Embiid said that he consulted with several specialists and that the procedure was the best route.
During his rehab, he spent a lot of time at home with his son, Arthur. “He's getting too used to it. He doesn’t want me to leave the house anymore,” Embiid quipped.
Joel Embiid on the decision to undergo his meniscus procedure, for which he sought advice from multiple specialists: pic.twitter.com/UVqKOwJBKe
— Sam DiGiovanni (@BySamDiGiovanni) February 29, 2024
The 65-game minimum for NBA awards was already creeping up on Embiid before his extended absence. Missing 24 games and counting has left him firmly ineligible now. A championship took precedence for Embiid over more individual accolades already but his focus can now lie squarely on the ultimate prize and simply getting back to playing the game he loves.
“I just love playing basketball,” Embiid said. “I want to be on the floor as much as possible. I only have about 20 years to do this. So any chances that I get, I wanna be on the floor.”
It doesn’t matter to Embiid what seed the Sixers end the regular season at. They’re currently the fifth seed and less than a game away from being the eighth seed. Since they have a 5.5-game lead over the ninth seed, they should be able to remain a top-8 team during Embiid's absence. But their 7-17 record without Embiid this season doesn’t inspire confidence.
Once Embiid does get back and gets some games to feel things out again, the 76ers should be able to give any team a fight. Their 26-8 record in games Embiid does play this season — all of which came before revamping their roster at the deadline — inspires plenty of confidence. But it ultimately comes down to how healthy Embiid can stay, a trend that has a long, tortured history of bad luck.
“For really two months, I was not a hundred percent. I was not even close to it,” Embiid said. “I just felt the need of, like I always say, giving my all to the team and just wanting to win because I know I can add that to this basketball team.”
The responsibility Embiid feels to be there for the team even when he's far from his best exemplifies his deserved spot as the face of the franchise and an MVP-caliber player. But that competitiveness can also lead to Embiid pushing himself beyond his limits. The 76ers being so ineffective without him has underscored what a two-way sword that can be.
“My mindset is to play. So I gotta do whatever it takes to help the team. Sometimes it helps me, sometimes it doesn't,” Embiid said, adding that there isn’t anything different that he would have done when it came to handling his knee issue.
Joel Embiid not concerned with external pressure to play
After Embiid was ruled out at the last second in the 76ers' matchup with the Denver Nuggets due to left knee soreness, fans and media members raged against him missing his fourth consecutive game in Denver. He went on to miss the Sixers' next game two days later against the Portland Trail Blazers. The following night was the loss to the Warriors in which his knee issue became too big to ignore.
Embiid said that he doesn’t feel any of the external pressure dictating him to play. In the games leading up to his incident in the loss to Golden State, he said that he felt what he had felt weeks before, a feeling where he “just felt like it wasn't myself but I was still good enough to go out there because I know that 60 or 70 percent of me can still help the team a lot on both ends of the floor.”
While it’s not surprising to hear that the nonsensical narratives around Embiid not playing enough don’t matter to him, his insatiable desire to be there for the 76ers ended with him playing too much for his own good. It was apparent to everyone that Embiid was way, way, way below his usual level against the Warriors. His competitive fire ended up burning him, though that flame is always prevalent in the greats of any game. Now in the process of recovering, Embiid has to also prepare to play with a new roster.
The 76ers added Kyle Lowry and Buddy Hield, both of whom Embiid is excited to play with, via the buyout market and trade, respectively, while moving on from five of their players from the last game Embiid played in. Cam Payne also landed in Philly via trade. Undrafted rookie Ricky Council IV now sees regular playing time. A lot of the role players Embiid spent time learning how to play with this season are now in other places. Others, namely De'Anthony Melton and Robert Covington, are also on the mend.
Simply being around the team as much as he can will not only help him stay up to speed but also make him available to help his teammates. Tobias Harris, for example, has played perhaps his worst stretch as a Sixer over the past few weeks. Having his superstar teammate to lean on can only be beneficial.
“Just by being here, talking to the guys, trying to help them as much as possible,” Embiid said. “I think what I've learned being around is that my presence helps a lot. Especially, I just talked to Tobias for almost an hour the other day trying to help him. He's a good player but we all go through rough patches. I'm sure he's gonna come out of it.”
Embiid has said often that he believes that any roster with himself on it has a chance to win. The 76ers have always tested that theory and come up with negative results each time. Thrown off balance for a yet-to-be-determined period of time, the Sixers have nothing to do but stay as steady as possible until the reigning MVP resecures their foothold.
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