Joel Must Be Loving This
AU is happy to finally see the island vacation emoji next to Joel Embiid's name in Slack.
Wow has it been the busiest Sixers August I can ever remember. Well, not busiest, exactly — we’ve still got at least a couple months until anything of true consequence is allowed to actually happen with the Sixers again — but undoubtedly, we’ve got real stuff to talk about still, which is something of a first for this time of year. Just last week, I was wondering when or if we were finally going to get a LeBron James introductory press conference; it never even occurred to me we still had a Jaylen Brown introductory press conference to get through first. Meanwhile, we’ve got V.J. Edgecombe Muscle Watch photos to analyze, we’ve got Rich Paul podcasts (shudder) to listen to, we’ve got Jaylen Twitch streams to figure out how to watch (or at least to wait for the true sickos on our timelines to helpfully excerpt). We’ve got stuff! Semi-real stuff. It’s crazy to still have this much sheer content in August.
Not from Joel Embiid, though. Throughout this most involved of Sixers summers, Joel has tuned out and dropped off. Calls go to voicemail, texts get an emoji response at best, emails are just dust in the wind. There’s more to talk about this August than ever before, but Joel is unavailable for comment. He is getting some sun on a yacht, he is in spiritual hibernation at a monastery, he is backpacking to Machu Picchu, he is studying squid fishing in Borneo. He may show up unexpectedly in a gym photo looking unprecedentedly slim, but try to ask him about it and he will suddenly have Transported Manned himself out the door. It is the seventh day of The Process’ creation myth, and you better fucking believe that Joel Embiid is resting.
I imagine he’s never been happier.
For the last 10 Sixers summers, the story has been Joel Embiid. Yes, the story has also been Tyrese Maxey, or Ben Simmons, or James Harden, or Daryl Morey, or Doc Rivers, or Al Horford, or Barbara Bottini, or Drew Hanlen, or the surgery attendings at PCOM. But really, the story has been Joel Embiid. How’s Joel doing? What’s Joel doing? Is Joel doing? Will he be ready for training camp? Will he be ready for the pre-season? Will he be ready for opening night? Will he be ready for Christmas? Will he ever really be ready? Can Joel lead this team? Should Joel lead this team? Should we trade Joel? Can we trade Joel? Joel Joel Joel, Joel Joel Joel Joel Joel. For a full decade of Augusts and second Augusts and sometimes third and fourth Augusts. It’s been a lot to carry for a guy whose lower body has already long been a little wobbly.
But now, it is alleviated. Adding a pair of Finals MVPs after we had signed Dean Wade and Ariel Hukporti and seemingly called it an offseason will do that, I guess. For once, Joel is not in the primary headline of the Sixers’ offseason; hell, if he’s even on the front page, it’s so far below the fold you gotta follow with your fingers to even find it. It’s not like there isn’t stuff to talk about with Joel; we theoretically could still be talking plenty about his body and his contract and emotionally negotiating exactly how many good games we could expect out of him next year between the regular season and postseason. (50? 40? Can we start the bidding at 25, at least?) But why talk about any of that when we could talk about swapping Paul George for Jaylen Brown? Why talk about that when we could talk about picking up a guy who’s made each of the last 22 All-Star Games like he was a late-season buyout? Why talk about that when we could be debating material and design for the Mike Gansey statue to go atop the Museum of Art steps?
At long last, Joel Embiid is an afterthought. He does not have to spend this summer figuring out how to be a leader. He does not have to spend this summer making us feel better about ourselves. He definitely does not have to spend this summer sitting for polarizing, soul-searching ESPN interviews. He can get suddenly skinny if he wants to, and if before social media even settles on whether to call him Ozembiid or JoelP-1, he can balloon right back to where he was, that’ll be fine too. For once, he gets to be just one of the guys, to blend into the background of the party scenes. It’s not his responsibility to lead the narrative to where it’s going next anymore.
In a certain sense, that’s a bit of a bummer. Certainly earlier in his career, I had hoped that Joel Embiid would get to experience his Great Summer Unburderning as a result of having led Philadelphia to its first NBA championship since 1983, of having nothing left to prove as an NBA superstar or as a Sixer. I wanted him to finally get to the top of the mountain on his own and then have a nice, leisurely stroll back down. Instead, he’s picked up a couple experienced Sherpa guides to help him the rest of the way. Better than being stuck midway up the climb forever, of course, but still not quite the ending to the best-selling Barnes & Noble paperback we were hoping for.
But I think what still makes it ultimately OK — for me, at least, and possibly for him as well — is the Celtics series last year. He got to be the hero in that series, to come back crazy early from his appendix surgery and play the best, calmest postseason hoops of his career and lead the Sixers back from a 3-1 series deficit to a still-inconceivable Game Seven victory in Boston. Those were Joel Embiid’s Sixers who did that, who shocked the world, who killed off an entire era of basketball in Boston, who put the team in a place where one of the two greatest players of all time could look at their name in a list of all 30 NBA teams and go Hmmm How About That One. He has that forever, and so do we. It’s much easier to turn the page on this chapter of Sixers history knowing that this was its climax.
And whatever comes next, Joel will certainly still be an important part — arguably the most important. Having a healthy-ish, functioning-ish Joel is probably still the difference between the Sixers being a true championship contender and a fun second-or-third-round out. There will be much to talk about with Joel, much to think about, and he won’t get to Out-of-Office most of it once the season actually starts. But this part, he finally does get to take off. He doesn’t have to bear the weight of existential Sixers discourse anymore, of the garments rended over what was, of the future-tripping out over what will be. He doesn’t even have to spend Sixers August thinking about the Sixers. He can actually enjoy his summer vacation for once. We all can, maybe.
Andrew Unterberger writes for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, as part of the ‘If Not, Pick Will Convey as Two Second-Rounders’ section of the site. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AUGetoffmygold and can also read him at Billboard.