Who’s to blame for Embiid’s injury and his having to be shut down for the season?

Joel Embiid and the Sixers franchise blew it. And things may never be the same for the 2023 MVP again.

Joel Embiid’s season is over. People on X are frenetically pointing fingers, mostly making fun of Embiid himself for being injury-prone and not taking proper care of his body. At this point, it’s not even unreasonable for fans of rival teams or haters to take their shots.

According to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, per Marc Stein’s personal Substack:

“Throughout the season, Embiid has met with more than 10 doctors, sources say, for counsel on overcoming the unrelenting discomfort and swelling in the same knee that has already been subjected to multiple meniscus surgeries.”

Some fans are even logically wondering if the team might hit the the abort button on the superstar nicknamed after the team’s decade old tank “Process,” trade Joel and rebuild around Tyrese Maxey. The idea of trading the seven-time All-Star would have felt like an absolute absurdity just two years ago when the Kansas product out of Yaoundé was hoisting the 2023 NBA MVP trophy. It’s is now a fair question to wonder about.

The length of time, and the amount of money on this contract is suddenly terrifying. What if this is his new normal? Or what if he simply retires before that 2028-2029 season?

Our Paul Hudrick asked a few key questions when searching for blame to go around:

“There will be much hand-wringing over what went wrong. Should Embiid have not come back for that first-round playoff series against the New York Knicks having had surgery just eight weeks prior? Should he have taken the summer off to rehab and strengthen his knee instead of helping Team USA win a gold medal in Paris? Should he have taken a similar path to Kawhi Leonard and sat out the first couple months of the season after swelling occurred ahead of training camp?

All worthwhile questions but unfortunately none of the answers will help the Sixers now or in the foreseeable future. ”

Some people who were likely wrong about The Process — being a smart way to rebuild — are even trying to sneak in a silly victory lap that this finally proves Sam Hinkie is to blame and we all should admit it (Lololol!)

The team tanked for an actual league MVP who, even despite his ongoing injury issues, had this team in semi-contention for yeras. Had they traded JoJo at that point they could have landed a few handful of top flight superstars or up to four first-round picks.

Had Ben Simmons or James Harden been even a measley few points worth better in sickening choke job games during key second round action over the years, Daryl Morey’s Sixers would have made their first Eastern Conference Finals on multiple occasions.

Maybe if Doc Rivers had given rookie-year Tyrese Maxey (coming off a 16-point, seven-rebound explosion in Game 6 back in 2021 vs. the Atlanta Hawks) a few of Furkan Korkmaz, George Hill or Matisse Thybulle’s combined 61 minutes in Game 7 they would have.

But I digress… so where do we point the finger?

My answer grid might look something like this:

• Embiid Himself — 59%
• The 76ers organization — 27 %
• Embiid’s various coaches — 12 %
• The NBA Brass — 2 %

Fans are right to question his conditioning habits as they pertain to injury prevention.

Paul is spot on to wonder if Joel shouldn’t have played vs. the Knicks in the last NBA playoffs. The 280+ pounder definitely shouldn’t have tried an off the glass poster jam when he did return. He definitely definitely definitely shouldn’t have played in the Olympics, no matter how cool it felt; his legacy won’t be remembered for load managing through Paris to a gold medal — even if he did save their asses by outplaying Nikola Jokic in the penultimate game. No Sixer fan wants to read that he should have used the summer to rehab because they all hoped he would to avoid a situation like this.

He absolutely should have taken a Kawhi Leonard approach. (He should call Kawhi and Chris Paul and ask them how they bounced back from career threatening knee injuries).

But I’d add that perhaps the worst mistake was his playing and staying in that fateful game in Golden State last season.

He heard the noise that he was “ducking Joker” a few nights prior, he let it get into his head, and he tried to prove a point and it cost him perhaps a career-derailing price. What’s that saying about ounces and pounds of cure?

As for the 76ers franchise, balancing keeping Joel happy and wanting to be here and his health has been an impossible hurdle for 4.5 regimes now (Sam Hinkie, Bryan Colangelo, Interim GM Brett Brown, Elton Brand and Daryl Morey). You could or probably even should point the finger at the team even more than the 27 percent I dished out. If you wanted to say 44 percent or higher in the replies I’d certainly hear you out….

They don’t seem to be able to get him to sit out when he’s visibly injured, they allow him to play with torn, injured meniscii (numerous times over the years). Doc Rivers basically left him in up 256 points with 4 seconds remaining vs. the Toronto Raptors when Pascal Siakam broke his face and dolled out a vicious concussion as a crass Canadian crowd cheered the obvious garbage time injury.

Nick Nurse watched Jo flirt with a non-contact injury and limp his way through what was basically trash time vs. the Warriors that fateful (inevitable?) night Jonathan Kuminga dove for a loose ball and landed on Embiid’s leg; leading to the last surgery he had 13 months ago.

Owners and GMs should have made patently clear to coaches and med staff that they have the authority to bench Joel even when he’s been medically cleared him and even when he wants to keep fighting. He returned to play vs. the Knicks then played in the Olympics before signing a max extension. Yeesh. If they’d all only read Liberty Ballers once in awhile and implemented our recommendations (Joel included) they’d all likely be in a much better spot right now, NGL.

And last and least, we can point our finger at the NBA for adding that ridiculous 65 game minimum rule that ESPN’s Senior Writer Ramona Shelburne, all but said motivated Joel to play in that fateful game too.

I know I’m repeating what Paul said but I think it’s worth saying again: “all worthwhile questions but unfortunately none of the answers will help the Sixers now or in the foreseeable future.”

This just stinks. And we can keep pointing cortisone injected Paul George pinkies at culprits. But blame doesn’t do much. The best news is that the right decision was made here to shut him down and everyone deserves credit here. Hopefully, Guerschon Yabusele doesn’t win them too many meaningless games down the stretch.