There's been several tales about Joel Embiid's poor eating habits during his time with the Philadelphia 76ers. His love for Shirley Temples, his infatuation with french fries and his endless appetite are some, but not too long ago, head coach Brett Brown feared his own job due to the staff's inability to get him in playing shape.
Yaron Weitzman of Bleacher Report told this anecdote in his new book “Tanking to the Top” (h/t Henry Abbott of TrueHoop), noting just how bad Embiid's fast food addiction alarmed Brown and the rest of the coaching staff.
As a rookie in 2018, Landry Shamet had the task of ordering food for the team. Embiid's special order was to be delivered in a separate bag. It was “four [Chick-Fil-A] spicy chicken sandwiches, four large fries, four cookies and cream milkshakes—in its own separate bag.”
Embiid would then go on to devour that on the plane.
At the time, the big man was out injured, but the medical staff was still tasked with ensuring he'd be ready once he was healthy enough to ho. Upon seeing him move during his rehabilitation, Brown shouted at the team’s medical staff: “we’re all going to get fired because Joel’s out of shape.”
This Chick-Fil-A story had surfaced at the time and the Sixers tried their best to push it under the rug, saying the food in the bag wasn't all for him.
“I heard that summer Joel did some media tour where he was like I was just joking, that was just rookie hazing,” Weitzman told Abbott. “It wasn’t rookie hazing. What’s the rookie hazing? [Shamet’s] already going.”
Embiid has battled weight issues his whole career, and many of his injuries have been due to extra stress on his body, which weight directly affects.
Brown still has his job and is unknown if those same medical staffers still do, but Embiid has to be eating better by now if he hopes to play most of the season as he asserted before the start of 2019-20.
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