Embiid is out
Who’s tougher: Jalen Hurts or Joel Embiid?
BY HENRY ABBOTT
Healthy Joel Embiid is quite probably the best basketball player in the world. In recent years, the 76ers blow out opponents with him in the game, and lose badly when he’s out. And now he’s going to be out for the remainder of the season, dooming the 76ers.
By contrast, Philadelphia’s other team, the Eagles, just won the Super Bowl. Which raises the question in the headline which is pointless, mean-spirited and unanswerable.
So let’s get cracking!
Joel Embiid started playing basketball late in his career and when he came into the Sixers organization it was an organization that encouraged him to take extra time off if he was hurt because they didn't want to win anyway. Practices were not super serious because the veterans knew they were going to be traded and the young players knew they had years. There was no sense of urgency. And this has continued. Joel Embiid ducks every big matchup.
“I can't blame my Sixers fan friends,” Jake Fischer writes, “for wondering whether the Embiid Era — if the window to win a championship with the loquacious big man as Philadelphia's focal point — is winding to a fruitless close.”
And so on.
I am right there with everyone who worries that Embiid is medically unreliable and at times a little rash with dirty plays and other things.
But the accusation that seems to be taking hold these days is that he’s soft, as in: if he were a Real Man, he’d be out there playing, leading this 76ers team.
Across that South Philly parking lot, Philadelphia sports fans have Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts as a conquering hero. Let’s compare.
CAREER MINUTES
Hurts (estimate based on 5.5 minutes per game): 473 over 86 games since 2020
Embiid: 16,490 over 511 games since 2014
I know the idea is that Hurts is at least available when his team needs him. In a way that’s true. I guess NBA teams just need their stars more.
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