There are some players that people just love to hate and Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid is one of them.
He’s earned plenty of sympathy after the realization that he might have sustained a career-ending injury. As the saying goes, ‘you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.’ For NBA fans that have been outspoken critics of Embiid, that couldn’t be any more true. However, he’s always going to have detractors.
No Sound Argument Against Joel Embiid Making Hall Of Fame
The man responsible for writing an unethical article about him only a few months ago is one of them. In his latest attempt to dress the star big man down, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Marcus Hayes questions Embiid’s chances of being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Though eventually stating Embiid would likely get in, Hayes paints a picture of the soon-to-be 31-year-old as a weak candidate:
Considering the low bar to get into the Basketball Hall of Fame, certainly, with his All-Star appearances and MVP award, he deserves to be in the Hall. However, if it were a more demanding Hall of Fame, such as baseball, then I think his brief career, combined with his postseason failures, his decreased postseason production, his poor character, and his abysmal professionalism and leadership would disqualify him for most voters.
The palpable sense of bitterness isn’t lost on anyone. Hayes, who was accosted by Embiid in response to what he wrote about a late relative, has an axe to grind. He clearly didn’t like or respect him before their confrontation and nothing has changed since. His unprofessional behavior isn’t the focus though.
Hayes might have a personal grudge against Embiid but he’s not the only person who doesn’t think he’s worthy of the Hall of Fame. In that same Q&A, NBC Sports Philadelphia Sixers analyst Marc Jackson says that he believes “the length of his career” will keep him out. Former NBC Sports Philadelphia Sixers play-by-play broadcaster Marc Zumoff agrees “if Joel was forced to retire today.”
With that being said, there’s no way Embiid wouldn’t make the cut. Though there isn’t a list of minimal requirements, he’s done enough in his career to be enshrined, objectively. No matter how anyone feels about him, that’s what matters.
MVP, MVP, MVP!
As Zumoff and others stated, every NBA MVP has made the Hall of Fame.
Embiid, who won a controversial NBA MVP race back in 2023, already has that feather in his cap. He was the NBA MVP runner-up in the two preceding seasons, underscoring his dominance. In those three seasons, the former No. 3 pick averaged 30.9 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.5 blocks, and 1.0 steal per game.
Joel Embiid has the most points + rebounds + assists + blocks + steals per minute on record in NBA history.
A big loss for the NBA, not just the Sixers. pic.twitter.com/oUXMdtX9wi
— HoopsHype (@hoopshype) March 1, 2025
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Had his competition during that stretch not been Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, who’s become a legendary player, it’s fair to say he would have more than one NBA MVP award. However, just because he was outshined by Jokic doesn’t mean he wasn’t stellar. In fact, his NBA MVP award is actually even more impressive when considering who he had to outplay.
What About…
Moving on, Embiid is also a seven-time All-Star selection. There are 13 players in the Hall of Fame who don’t have a single All-Star selection. Another nine Hall of Fame inductees have fewer than three All-Star selections. Thus, he would seem to have the edge here as well.
To address Hayes, Jackson, and Zumoff’s comments about the length of Embiid’s career, one can look at former Houston Rockets center Yao Ming. Like Embiid, Ming’s career was hampered by injuries. As a result, the Shanghai native played just eight seasons.
There are 21 other Hall of Fame players who played fewer than the nine seasons that Embiid has. This includes players like former Denver Nuggets wing David Thompson, who never won an NBA championship either.
Ultimately, there’s no objective reason to keep Embiid out of the Hall of Fame.
In The End…
Even complaints about his character don’t make much of a difference.
Charles Barkley, a Hall of Famer, once threw a man through a window. Jason Kidd, a Hall of Fame player-turned-coach, had numerous off-court incidents. Then there’s Karl Malone, a Hall of Famer who had one of the most impressive careers, but a nauseating personal life.
It’s pretty easy to make an argument that Embiid was no better than Barkley and no worse than Kidd nor Malone.
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