There are only four-ish players in NBA history who can credibly claim to be the GOAT and Joel Embiid, according to Joel Embiid, is one of them.
“I think I’m that talented,” Embiid told the New York Times. “Obviously you need to win championships, and to win championships you need other guys.”
“If you think about it,” he continued. "The thing that stopped me all these years is just freak injuries. Every single playoffs, regular season, people falling on my knee or breaking my face — twice. It’s always freak injuries at the wrong time.”
To be sure, the whole thing feels like the big-league version of I have a girlfriend, she just goes to another school. Then again, he’s not entirely wrong. Throughout Embiid’s 10-year career, his talent or potential has never been in question. When Embiid is on the court, he’s the best player in the world, possibly barring Nikola Jokic. At his peak, Embiid is good in ways that make it hard to imagine that someone could possibly be better.
His game is all superlatives: there’s no need for critical thinking or heady third-level analysis with Embiid. He’s the best at putting the ball in the basket and the best at stopping his opponent from doing the same. Moreover, he’s the biggest real player in the league (only Boban Marjanovic is larger than the seven-foot, two-inch, 300 pound Embiid) and has the softest touch of just about any NBAer ever.
Last season, Embiid averaged 34.7 points in just 33.6 minutes per game, making him the first player to average more than a point per minute since Wilt Chamberlain in 1962. Beyond his historic scoring, Embiid ratcheted his defense back up to All-Defense team levels and even chipped in a career-high 5.7 assists simply because he could. The only criticism of his game is that he isn’t entertaining enough when he dominates.
And yet, in his current stint with Team USA, Embiid has failed to find his footing, playing arguably some of the worst basketball of his career. Across five exhibitions, Embiid has averaged a pedestrian 10.4 points and 6.8 rebounds. His successes have been muted and his failures have been loud. Against Canada, he fouled out in just 12 minutes; a week later, he went viral for shamelessly (and unsuccessfully) trying to draw a foul against Serbia, careening into Nikola Jokic and ignoring a clear path to the rim in the process.
Although he showed signs of life in the most recent scrimmage against Germany, he’s been largely declawed by the kind of bigs he usually savages. More damning, the team has been better without him—Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo have both handily out-played him so far, thanks to skill sets that make them better at swimming in international waters.
Similarly, during the run-up to the Olympics, Embiid indulged his worst, troll-ish impulses away from the court. Beyond calling himself the would-be GOAT, he’s jabbed at his national teammates on various podcasts, intimating that LeBron James is washed and that Jayson Tatum is a Derrick White-merchant. Without the green light to work his usual angles, Embiid is having a Brat summer—and not in the fun way.
With the Sixers, Embiid is the shot-caller, not merely the shot-taker. Over the last few seasons, he’s excised any sense of neediness and evolved into a self-sufficient offensive force. Whereas most centers require some degree of hand-holding, Embiid more closely resembles a super-sized Kobe Bryant in the way that his individual scoring is almost independent of his team context.
But now, Embiid’s primacy is somewhat redundant. Playing alongside 10 other future Hall of Famers, Embiid doesn’t have the capital to make his usual standing reservation with the ball and looks uncertain operating in Team USA’s more egalitarian offense. While Adebayo and Davis are undoubtedly a tier or two below Embiid in the NBA, they’ve thrived this summer because they have years of experience doing the unglamorous stuff that Embiid has mostly been above having to do; they’re better dribble handoff pivots and dunker spot scavengers because they were never able to graduate to higher levels of usage
As such, Embiid’s struggles are indicative of the flaws that exist in what should be a flawless team. Despite a 5-0 record in their “preseason” games, the team hasn’t fully gelled, leaning on their talent to eke out games against Australia, South Sudan and Germany. Every moment is infected by thought, the tiny awareness of the delta that exists between what they’re supposed to do and what they’ve always done.
Ultimately, international competition exists in its own bubble; it’s hard to graph this very specific situation onto an actual NBA season. But, for Embiid, his clunky play for Team USA could end up as a meaningful net positive. At the very least, it’ll resocialize him after a few seasons of hermetic bucket-getting. Having signed Paul George this summer, the Sixers have a trio of elite offensive players between George, Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. If Philly wants to make good on their potential and ambition, the three will need to quickly adapt and cohabitate: Embiid will have to fold in the same screening and connective passing that he’s struggled with this summer. Next year will be the most important season of his career, an inflection point that will determine his legacy as a player. To prove that he belongs with the GOATs, Joel Embiid needs to learn to be part of the herd.
