Came across this article on Twitter. Honestly, it was a fun read — clearly well written — but best of all, I feel the pain (which I relate to as a sports fan) and the unbelievable mental gymnastics of a typical Sixers fan. These fans are one of a kind. “Emotional availability” … that’s what they’ve been reduced to. Truly.
Let’s take off the Sixers goggles and have an honest conversation about Joel Embiid.
Joel’s MVP season was when most basketball fans realized who he is — an all-time individual talent who bends a regular season to his will but hasn’t bent a postseason. He’s the exact opposite of Nikola Jokić — where Jokic dissolves into the flow of the game and elevates everyone around him, Joel often becomes the system itself.
Did he deserve MVP? Absolutely. Is he insanely talented? No doubt. But once the individual validation arrived, the franchise quietly accepted that as proof of concept. “See? The Process worked.” Except… they still didn’t get out of the second round.
And this is where I break from the article a bit. Emotional availability is fun… I guess? It makes for complex fandom. But it’s not a leadership substitute — hell, I wouldn’t even put it in the top 20 attributes I’d want my superstar to have. The worst part? I don’t even know if the guy is emotionally available. If emotional availability means tweeting through it and staring into the abyss after a turnover, then sure — Hall of Fame level.
Joel has evolved individually. No question. That puts him ahead of Zion. Better passer. Smarter defender. More skilled from the nail. But here’s the uncomfortable part: most of that evolution has raised his ceiling. He rarely raises his team’s ceiling the way you’d want from a true franchise-altering superstar. The ecosystem still bends to him. The pace still warps around him. The playoff stress points still feel… familiar.
Name the player who doesn’t belong in this group:
Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Joel Embiid — trick question. They are all the same: heliocentric dominance that scales beautifully from October to April and gets complicated every single May.
At some point, if the entire organization orbits one player’s usage, health timeline, and emotional cadence, that’s not just a superstar — that’s gravitational destabilization. That works if you’re building a dynasty. It’s trickier if you’re building annual existential crises.
Zion feels like unfulfilled potential.
Joel feels like fulfilled potential that just wasn’t championship-altering.
Which, somehow, might be more painful.
Yes, see you Saturday. I fully expect neither of them to play.
First I wanna say thanks for reading our piece and feeling moved enough to comment! I think I’ve come to a point where I simply do not understand the hyper-reductive mindset behind this type of take on Embiid. It’s fair to criticize the playoff shortcomings, but it’s absurd to think you can leave out the injury context, which was kinda the whole point of the article… assessing how two supremely talented basketball players have navigated their predisposition to injury due to body type+play style combo. And yeah, it turns out that being emotionally available and accountable to the challenges of that process is pretty damn important! (I also want to make sure you know that Joel was recently quoted as saying that he’d trade in his MVP award for just one healthy playoff series!!). Do you simply not believe the sincerity of statements like that? How can you in good faith reduce this man to a story of regular season “heliocentric dominance” and tweeting and staring into an abyss???? Help me understand! Did you once believe and then stop believing? Tell me your Joel journey! I feel that there is more to unpack here.
I would love to share my Joel journey, but first I want to see how much we have in common. Scenario for you.
You are a GM- your primary job is to basically take dollars and turn them into championships. If you are the Sixers GM and you get to start from scratch, what number would Joel be on your top 100 NBA players to accomplish your goal?
So, the irony of me being part of the Ricky community is that I have a total inability to go GM/players-as-assets mode, hence my becoming, in your words, “reduced to,” a focus on the emotional dimension of things (if you’re a longtime listener, though, hopefully you know that I can get into the X’s and O’s too!!!). Does that tell you everything you need to know about what you and I [don’t] have in common? This is not me trying to establish a higher moral ground when it comes to basketball analysis (although that is a whole other conversation that I enjoy having), so please continue by answering your own question and going more into your Joel journey from there.
First off, just so you know, I'm enjoying this dialogue. I think a good debate is not quite a contact sport, but it's damn close. And yes, I am a part-time citizen of the Ricky universe. I’ve heard you on Rights To Ricky Sanchez and you absolutely know ball. The X’s and O’s are there and the vibe is strong. I feel like you could honestly start your own podcast haha.
Now, my Joel journey.
When Joel first came on the scene, I loved him. Truly. The footwork. The touch. The absurd combination of power and finesse. It felt unfair in the best way. He was also kinda funny, which made the dominance feel lighter and more relatable.
Then the injuries happened. Over and over.
And worse than the injuries — for me — were the playoff moments where his body language, pace, and engagement visibly dipped. I’m not saying he doesn’t care. I’m saying that as a fan watching elimination games, there were stretches that felt like resignation instead of defiance. Fair or unfair, that sticks with you.
I never achieved anything close to Joel’s level in sports (obviously), and any average Joe who thinks they have “Killer Kobe” in them is full of shit, but when the effort appears inconsistent in the highest-leverage moments, that’s hard for me to reconcile with building around someone as the unquestioned center of a championship project.And at some point I stopped waiting for him to flip the switch.
I don’t question his talent. Yes, I do kind of question his sincerity when he says he’d trade the MVP for a healthy playoff run. But even if he is sincere about that NOW, self reflection years later doesn't change the way in which I've seen him behave as a pro.
GM Hat, here we go — If I’m ranking the top 100 players to start a championship franchise today and I’m factoring: Cap hit, Durability, Availability, Playoff scalability, Style adaptability, Leadership tone-setting, and historical postseason translation... I cannot put Joel in my top 30.
I'm sure that sounds harsher than I mean it to. You lean toward the emotional dimension. Maybe I do view sports too much as a cold asset board, but hey, most sports FANatics are that way. Both are human ways to process fandom. Maybe I can argue — one builds connection, the other builds banners (teasing).
To bring it home- loved the article, definitely disagree :)
I was not expecting this.... your comments on this article are helping me realize some truths about my own Joel/sixers journey that I had not yet become fully conscious of. I'll respond to this specific one, but wanted to let you know that you have inspired me to use this account to write more of my own stuff haha. (oh and before you get excited, no, I am not convinced by any of your takes) Stay tuned!
Wow. Now I need Daily Becky.
You sweet sweet soul. That would be the dream!
Came across this article on Twitter. Honestly, it was a fun read — clearly well written — but best of all, I feel the pain (which I relate to as a sports fan) and the unbelievable mental gymnastics of a typical Sixers fan. These fans are one of a kind. “Emotional availability” … that’s what they’ve been reduced to. Truly.
Let’s take off the Sixers goggles and have an honest conversation about Joel Embiid.
Joel’s MVP season was when most basketball fans realized who he is — an all-time individual talent who bends a regular season to his will but hasn’t bent a postseason. He’s the exact opposite of Nikola Jokić — where Jokic dissolves into the flow of the game and elevates everyone around him, Joel often becomes the system itself.
Did he deserve MVP? Absolutely. Is he insanely talented? No doubt. But once the individual validation arrived, the franchise quietly accepted that as proof of concept. “See? The Process worked.” Except… they still didn’t get out of the second round.
And this is where I break from the article a bit. Emotional availability is fun… I guess? It makes for complex fandom. But it’s not a leadership substitute — hell, I wouldn’t even put it in the top 20 attributes I’d want my superstar to have. The worst part? I don’t even know if the guy is emotionally available. If emotional availability means tweeting through it and staring into the abyss after a turnover, then sure — Hall of Fame level.
Joel has evolved individually. No question. That puts him ahead of Zion. Better passer. Smarter defender. More skilled from the nail. But here’s the uncomfortable part: most of that evolution has raised his ceiling. He rarely raises his team’s ceiling the way you’d want from a true franchise-altering superstar. The ecosystem still bends to him. The pace still warps around him. The playoff stress points still feel… familiar.
Name the player who doesn’t belong in this group:
Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Joel Embiid — trick question. They are all the same: heliocentric dominance that scales beautifully from October to April and gets complicated every single May.
At some point, if the entire organization orbits one player’s usage, health timeline, and emotional cadence, that’s not just a superstar — that’s gravitational destabilization. That works if you’re building a dynasty. It’s trickier if you’re building annual existential crises.
Zion feels like unfulfilled potential.
Joel feels like fulfilled potential that just wasn’t championship-altering.
Which, somehow, might be more painful.
Yes, see you Saturday. I fully expect neither of them to play.
First I wanna say thanks for reading our piece and feeling moved enough to comment! I think I’ve come to a point where I simply do not understand the hyper-reductive mindset behind this type of take on Embiid. It’s fair to criticize the playoff shortcomings, but it’s absurd to think you can leave out the injury context, which was kinda the whole point of the article… assessing how two supremely talented basketball players have navigated their predisposition to injury due to body type+play style combo. And yeah, it turns out that being emotionally available and accountable to the challenges of that process is pretty damn important! (I also want to make sure you know that Joel was recently quoted as saying that he’d trade in his MVP award for just one healthy playoff series!!). Do you simply not believe the sincerity of statements like that? How can you in good faith reduce this man to a story of regular season “heliocentric dominance” and tweeting and staring into an abyss???? Help me understand! Did you once believe and then stop believing? Tell me your Joel journey! I feel that there is more to unpack here.
I would love to share my Joel journey, but first I want to see how much we have in common. Scenario for you.
You are a GM- your primary job is to basically take dollars and turn them into championships. If you are the Sixers GM and you get to start from scratch, what number would Joel be on your top 100 NBA players to accomplish your goal?
So, the irony of me being part of the Ricky community is that I have a total inability to go GM/players-as-assets mode, hence my becoming, in your words, “reduced to,” a focus on the emotional dimension of things (if you’re a longtime listener, though, hopefully you know that I can get into the X’s and O’s too!!!). Does that tell you everything you need to know about what you and I [don’t] have in common? This is not me trying to establish a higher moral ground when it comes to basketball analysis (although that is a whole other conversation that I enjoy having), so please continue by answering your own question and going more into your Joel journey from there.
First off, just so you know, I'm enjoying this dialogue. I think a good debate is not quite a contact sport, but it's damn close. And yes, I am a part-time citizen of the Ricky universe. I’ve heard you on Rights To Ricky Sanchez and you absolutely know ball. The X’s and O’s are there and the vibe is strong. I feel like you could honestly start your own podcast haha.
Now, my Joel journey.
When Joel first came on the scene, I loved him. Truly. The footwork. The touch. The absurd combination of power and finesse. It felt unfair in the best way. He was also kinda funny, which made the dominance feel lighter and more relatable.
Then the injuries happened. Over and over.
And worse than the injuries — for me — were the playoff moments where his body language, pace, and engagement visibly dipped. I’m not saying he doesn’t care. I’m saying that as a fan watching elimination games, there were stretches that felt like resignation instead of defiance. Fair or unfair, that sticks with you.
I never achieved anything close to Joel’s level in sports (obviously), and any average Joe who thinks they have “Killer Kobe” in them is full of shit, but when the effort appears inconsistent in the highest-leverage moments, that’s hard for me to reconcile with building around someone as the unquestioned center of a championship project.And at some point I stopped waiting for him to flip the switch.
I don’t question his talent. Yes, I do kind of question his sincerity when he says he’d trade the MVP for a healthy playoff run. But even if he is sincere about that NOW, self reflection years later doesn't change the way in which I've seen him behave as a pro.
GM Hat, here we go — If I’m ranking the top 100 players to start a championship franchise today and I’m factoring: Cap hit, Durability, Availability, Playoff scalability, Style adaptability, Leadership tone-setting, and historical postseason translation... I cannot put Joel in my top 30.
I'm sure that sounds harsher than I mean it to. You lean toward the emotional dimension. Maybe I do view sports too much as a cold asset board, but hey, most sports FANatics are that way. Both are human ways to process fandom. Maybe I can argue — one builds connection, the other builds banners (teasing).
To bring it home- loved the article, definitely disagree :)
I was not expecting this.... your comments on this article are helping me realize some truths about my own Joel/sixers journey that I had not yet become fully conscious of. I'll respond to this specific one, but wanted to let you know that you have inspired me to use this account to write more of my own stuff haha. (oh and before you get excited, no, I am not convinced by any of your takes) Stay tuned!