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The World Wants Me to Turn on Joel Embiid, But His Post-Game Presser is a Reminder of Why I’ll Always Reply: “Fat Chance…”
By Matt Schultz
Published:
The Sixers got swept in their second-round matchup against the Knicks, and it was not pretty. After flashing the platonic ideal of what their roster could be in the last few games of the Celtics series, the Sixers came crashing back down to earth in four extremely disappointing showings against New York. Plenty of people deserve blame for what we just had to watch, both in the front office and on the roster. Joel Embiid, of course, is no exception – he didn’t play well enough against the Knicks. I wish he played better. But that’s about as far as I’m willing to go with Jo. I, for one, am not willing to crush the guy.
Many people do not agree. Many folks are tired of the Joel experience: his underwhelming playoff history, his constant injury woes, his aging knees, his lackluster defense, his foul grifting, his mopiness, and on and on and on. I do get that. I feel that way a good amount of the time, too. But even in the wake of Game 4’s brutal, season-ending loss, watching Embiid’s post-game availability, I can’t help but think: I’ll never not love the guy. I think he’s the best. Barring something insane, I’ll be a Joel fan for life. He’s probably my favorite Sixer ever. And quotes like the one he gave after Game 4, when asked what he wants his legacy to be, are a nice reminder why:
“I don’t care. I got this beautiful young man. You guys might’ve taken away my chance to put my daughter to sleep. My wife is gonna be extremely mad at me. So, you know, that’s all I care about. I got my family. I got my kids – hopefully I get more. I got my mom, my dad. I don’t know. I could care less about, you know, what people think about me when it comes to basketball. I think I’ve done a lot of stuff off the court, so hopefully that’s the part that’s remembered. Whether it’s here in Philadelphia, all over the U.S., in Africa, and, you know, that’s been my goal. My focus is just, you know, keep doing – you know, keep improving in these things and keep helping people. So yes, I mean, to answer your question, that’s really what I want my legacy to be. You know, basketball is just a platform.”
Maybe I’m overly sentimental about Joel and this era of Sixers basketball. Maybe this kind of quote is entering my brain at the exact right time (Joel is one year younger than me – that makes us peers, equals, on the exact same footing in this life…). Maybe I’m even dumb as hell. It’s possible all of these things are true to varying degrees. But this quote resonated with me a lot, and made me a lot less mad about the Sixers’ shortcomings.
Joel rules! He’s a great guy! He’s meant a lot to basketball fans in Philly for a long time. He’s been through some real heavy shit in his decade-plus run here, on and off the court, and through it all, he’s been a kind and cool guy to pretty much everyone. So I am personally just glad to hear that he’s got a healthy perspective on all this stuff, especially as it feels like the Joel era of Sixers basketball may be coming to an end sooner rather than later.
Don’t get me wrong: It feels bad to lose again. It feels bad that the Joel Sixers have never made it past the second round of the playoffs. It feels bad that the Process era will probably never have a victorious, emotional crescendo, and will likely just keep sadly and slowly petering out until one day it just kind of ends (c’est la vie…). But I do think it’s nice that this stuff isn’t torturing Jo. I’m glad that he’s got better things to think about than Knicks fans talking shit on the computer. Seeing my peer handle this so well gives me hope for myself.
Jo’s legacy is his family, his kids, his philanthropy. My legacy is my beautiful blogs. For us, that is more than enough.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…)