A recent admission from Joel Embiid makes his decision to play in the Olympics even more head-scratching.
Unless something magically changes between now and the end of the regular season, the Philadelphia 76ers are going to be remembered as one of the most disappointing teams in the league this season. The team has been ravaged by injuries and even when they've been relatively healthy, they've left much to be desired. One player who is naturally going to take much of the blame is Joel Embiid, who is statistically having one of the worst seasons of his career.
After the team's most recent loss to the Boston Celtics, Embiid admitted that he's not going to look like his usual self until the problem with his knee is fixed. The hope - or plan - is that offseason surgery will solve the issue. With how this season has gone individually for Embiid and for the Sixers as a team, you can't help but wonder if there's any second-guessing how the offseason played out for both sides. More specifically, about Embiid's decision to play in the Olympics.
Joel Embiid's decision to play in the Olympics has to be revisited
The only way he could possibly be absolved from participating in the Olympics for Team USA is if he suffered this specific knee injury at some point during his play in the Olympics or if he just values winning a gold medal more than winning an NBA Championship. One of those may end up being true. However, unless it comes directly from Embiid, it's hard to pinpoint which one may be the case.
It's hard to determine when the real issue with his knee began. Could it have started last season and then progressively got worse? Yes and, in fact, I tend to believe that to be the case. And the only way he can fix that is with further surgery. However, if that is the case, it makes his decision to play in the Olympics look that much worse.
I understand Embiid wanted to be there for Team USA but, at the same time, he does owe it to the Sixers to do everything in his power to use the offseason to get healthy. Unfortunately, it's almost as if the opposite happened for Embiid. It's as if he entered this season as injured as he's ever been. So far this season, Embiid has already missed 37 games. He's probably on pace to miss the most games in a season since the 2016-17 season. That's not great.
Embiid has now struggled with injuries each of the past two seasons and things could get even worse depending on how the offseason surgery goes for the All-Star center. I suppose you can never take away the gold medal from Embiid but you can't help but wonder if there's any regret about not taking the offseason off instead of playing in the Olympics. At this point, that's one decision that could end up haunting Sixers fans for years to come - especially if Embiid never fully and completely never looks like himself again.