Subscribe
Follow Us
A lot of NBA players follow a strict diet regiment to optimize their performance on the court. Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid is no different, but he had one guilty pleasure, and her name is Shirley Temple. Now, though, the Sixers' Cameroonian star is cutting ties with his old flame.
Last season, several reports surfaced indicating that Embiid was a big fan of the popular cocktail. In fact, some of those reports stated that he would drink an entire pitcher at times. Those accounts weren't entirely true, though. He used to drink one serving a day (not an entire pitcher, as previously reported). Now, with the help of his personal chef, Embiid is cutting back on his consumption.
Via Clay Skipper of GQ:
He tells me that the food comes from his chef, who stops by four or five times a week to drop off meals. It’s the superstar athlete’s attempt at a more carefully crafted diet, a corrective to the eating habits that became the object of scrutiny and Internet laughter a few years ago, when it was reported that Embiid consumed pitchers of Shirley Temples. Embiid used to drink one (a single Shirley Temple, not a pitcher’s worth) almost every day but has since cut back to merely “once in a while,” he tells me while grabbing a bottled water from the fridge, as if to prove his point. (Bill Self, Embiid’s coach at Kansas, tells me that Embiid was the “least mature eater” he’s ever seen: “This dude would come to the house and go right to the plate of brownies and take the plate home, and that would be all that he would eat.”) Of course, the diet is only one piece in a much larger puzzle, one that has proved to be the hinge on which Embiid’s career swings from dormant to dominant: his body.
Embiid's new diet plan seems to be paying off. In the three games he's played this season, the former No. 3 overall pick has racked up averages of 28.3 points on 50.8 percent shooting from the field (33.3 percent from beyond the arc), 10.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 2.0 blocks in 34.3 minutes per outing.
In Saturday's 116-115 win over the Orlando Magic, Embiid posted 32 points and 10 rebounds, including 19 points by halftime.
Embiid and the Sixers will be back in action on Tuesday night when they'll travel to Detroit for a match-up against the Pistons. Tip-off inside Little Caesars Arena is set for 7:00 p.m. EST with NBATV having live broadcast coverage.
