NY Times: Joel Embiid thinks he could have been the GOAT if it weren't for injuries.

[eyeatoma]

his injury history is not bad luck; he just doesnt have the body built to play 82 games and then a deep post season.

Having a paralysed face is because his body isn't built right?

Having someone land on your knee is somehow his fault?

Having someone smash their shoulder (1st time) and elbow (second time) in your eye socket is not bad luck, and his an indictment on his body lol?

Was it health that prevented Embiid to play in Denver every year?

Yes, except for one occasion I believe.

[AleksandarN]

Having a paralysed face is because his body isn't built right?

Having someone land on your knee is somehow his fault?

Having someone smash their shoulder (1st time) and elbow (second time) in your eye socket is not bad luck, and his an indictment on his body lol?

Was it health that prevented Embiid to play in Denver every year?

Yes, except for one occasion I believe.

Weird how that tend to happen. And the only “one occasion” he missed Denver without an “excuse” was his MVP year lol

[Dez]

For the love of God stop letting eyeatoma create topics.

This is a no in every universe, a laughable no.

[sikma42]

I don’t know if he was built for it mentally. But he is as talented as almost anyone I’ve ever watched. He was a generational talent.


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[ITYSL]

Too bad that was the headline of the interview, because there were a lot of great parts to it.

I can't stand the way Embiid flops. Makes me not like him as a player. But I came away from this interview really liking him as a person.

[eyeatoma]

Too bad that was the headline of the interview, because there were a lot of great parts to it.

I can't stand the way Embiid flops. Makes me not like him as a player. But I came away from this interview really liking him as a person.

Yup he's very genuine and really is about family. Not a great headline.

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[NZB2323]

I can’t disparage him for having confidence, but even if he was 100% healthy 100% of the time, he still wouldn’t be as good as Jokic.

[famicommander]

hahahaha no

[HMFFL]

Healthy embiid definitely could have been on the level with the great big men like Duncan/Shaq/Hakeem and soon to be Jokic but sadly we'll never know.

Those injuries forced him to change his game and become the soft/flopper who throws cheapshots instead. GOAT talks were probably always off-limits.

I disagree and I don't believe Joel Embiid is close to their talent. Injuries to me haven't been Embiid's issue as much as teammates have been. Ben Simmon was a negative anchor and so was James Harden. More so Ben useless Simmons.

Did you even watch Hakeem, Duncan, or Shaq play?

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Saw them all play... Duncan's my favourite player of all time. Dude has been made out of glass and hasn't been able to improve his game/conditioning because of it (assumption obviously).

The skill level he's shown is up there with everyone but it's hard to say anything definitively here. Maybe he would have underachieved if he remains healthy so who knows.

Embiid won't have to do it all in the upcoming season with George and Maxey having another year in the league.

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[Fencer reregistered]

Many bigs can make similar claims. Ralph Sampson, Ewing, Yao and Porzingis come to mind. Makes the claim useless in itself

Fair point about the others, but why is Ewing on that list? I recall him as being a rather wooden player (and I don't mean John Wooden).

[mkot]

He also dropped 50 on the top defense in the league and the future DPOY (Wolves) and had a great record against the best defenses in the league when he did play. He also dropped 70 on arguablly a better defender than Gobert (Wemby).

Embiid beat:

Wolves
OKC
Magic
Celtics
Denver

He needs to beat them in the playoffs, that's when things really matter.

He will earn the respect from fans and players when he beat the ATGs in the playoffs. Jokić for example beat KD, LeBron, AD, Kawhi and also Dame if you want to count him as an ATG but for Embiid he really needs to at least get out of the second round first before trolling. His chance for next season is as high as ever with PG joining him. Hope he stays healthy to leave no doubt otherwise he's just another great player with the big "what if"

[KGtabake]

No. He's soft. You can't be the greatest when you avoid specific matchups.
When you constantly try to draw fouls(many of them ridiculous) instead of getting buckets.
When you do care about personal accolades more than team success.
Nobody in today's game has a shot at being the greatest but a few others -steph,giannis, jokic- are way ahead of embiid in that.

[mediocrityrules]

This has to be a joke thread right? Is it April fools day yet?

Firstly, there's an argument to say that he's not even the best player in the world at his position right now, let alone the best overall in the association, and this is just right now. As for the other greats, he's likely not even a shot at the top 10.

For those that want to argue 'what if?', well there's also plenty more talented players to apply that argument to, including guys like Shaq (what if he worked at keeping in shape?), Yao Ming (what if he stayed healthy)etc., again, just in his position.

[Best Bird Ever]

That's what i call being delusional.

[peZt]

Before the injuries Embiid was an athletic beast and an incredible low post player. Its really crazy to see how much he changed his game and maybe if not for the injuries, we would have kept playing under the rim as a low post player and never really truly reached his current potential. So its hard to say if the injuries really dampered his potential or actually helped him.
But if he still had developed his deadly mid range shot then the combination of his athletic profile, post play and midrange would have certainly elevated him to Shaq, Hakeem level

[mowcrowbar]

Even healthy he's not even good as Jokic. He can't even hold a candle next to Shaq.

[AussieCeltic]

This is complete disrespect to the legends of the game that have come before him and what they’ve accomplished.

Embiid hasn’t done **** in his career in terms of team success. Even if “fully healthy”, what series is getting him into a conference finals let alone winning multiple championships?

Congrats on your MVP Embiid. You’ll forever be remembered for the crappy campaign the whole 76ers organisation put up to prop you up and **** on Jokic to win it.

Embiid won’t be remembered with the Shaq, Hakeem, Duncan’s and other great big men. He’ll be remembered as the guy who couldn’t get it done when it got tough. A guy who didn’t take things seriously, was always out of shape and couldn’t win.

[JDR720]

He's not GOAT overall, but he could've been the GOAT offensive center behind Kareem. Now that is probably Jokic.

[Buckets22]

Who is here after Softbiid played like a donkey against South Sudan.

[Chokic]

Idk about GOAT as Mj had better intangibles killer instinct leadership qualities and clutch factor but as crazy as it may sound if healthy Embiid would probably top 2 or 3 player all time. He's the most offensively skilled scoring center in nba history and elite defensively too(higher than shaq duncan but below hakeem and maybe russell) Last season regular season version of embiid before going down in injury is better than any peak version of runnerup goat candidates in lebron and kareem. Facts.