The process is over, at least for now.
Philadelphia 76ers superstar big man Joel Embiid’s 2024-25 season is over before it really got started. The team announced Friday that Embiid has been ruled out for the remainder of the season because he is “medically unable to play.” Previously, Embiid and the organization had been going through the ringer trying to manage pain and swelling in his left knee, which required surgery in February of last year.
In only 19 games this season, Embiid averaged 23.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists. Last week, after a loss against the Boston Celtics in which he did not take the hardwood when it matters most, in the fourth quarter, Embiid told the media that he did not feel like his dominant self and needed to “fix the problem” to regain his form. This was not the first time that he had hinted he would need to undergo another surgery. On Friday, however, 76ers stopped short of announcing that Embiid would need to undergo another operation, only that they are working alongside specialists to come up with a treatment plan to ratify the issue.
The full statement:
The Philadelphia 76ers and Joel Embiid have been consulting with top specialists regarding ongoing issues with his left knee. After further evaluation, it has been determined that he is medically unable to play and will miss the remainder of the season to focus on treatment and rehabilitation. We are working with medical experts to determine the exact treatment plan and will update media when we have more information. The team and specialists will continue working with Joel to ensure the best path forward for his long-term health and performance.
On February 7, Sixers president Daryl Morey told reporters that, after talking to “seven, eight, nine, 10 at this point of the top [experts] in the world,” they were hopeful about Embiid’s knee issues getting better over time.
Embed from Getty Images“We do think there will be a place in the future where the symptoms and that are reduced or go to zero,” Morey said. “But we’re still in the middle of that where we have to manage it, and it’s going to be based on symptoms whether or not he’s out there.”
Morey added that Embiid was in a “great place” at the time and exuded confidence in the team making a late season run. It soon became apparent, though, that Embiid could not play at his top level and manage the symptoms. Since then, Philadelphia has dropped nine games in a row, the latest came against the New York Knicks, 110-105 on Wednesday, and are currently 20-38 and sitting in 12th in the Eastern Conference.
The sixty-four-thousand-dollar question here is not simply whether Embiid will have surgery or go the rest-and-treatment route, but whether either path will allow him to play at an MVP level and sustain it. Three weeks ago, Morey repeatedly stated that the Sixers were still committed to building around Embiid and felt that signing him to a three-year max extension (worth a projected $192.9 million) last summer was the right move. Perhaps it still could be, but only if another season like this one can be prevented.
In the short term, the question is whether this seemingly cursed Philadelphia season could have a silver lining. As stated previously, the team has lost nine straight games, and it owns the sixth-worst record in the NBA. The Toronto Raptors, who have the fifth-worst record, are 2½ games behind them in the standings (or ahead of them in the race to the bottom), but Toronto has the easiest remaining schedule in the NBA, starting off with the Chicago Bulls on Friday (its opponents have a cumulative winning percentage of .368) and will face the Sixers twice in March. Should Philly finish in the position it occupies now, it will have a 45.8% chance of keeping its top-six-protected first-round pick. Should the Sixers fall to the spot the Raptors are in, they will have a 63.9% chance of keeping it.
Twenty-four hours before the Embiid announcement, Philadelphia stated that veteran guard Eric Gordon would be on the shelf for at least three months after having wrist surgery, effectively ending his season.
With Embiid officially out, does it still make sense for Paul George to play through pain with a splint on his injured pinky? Does it still make sense to play their best player Tyrese Maxey for an average of 38 minutes per game? Probably not! These events were taking place because the Sixers were holding out hope that they could squeeze into the play-in tournament, then get into the playoffs and then, if they were mostly healthy, give a contender a run for their money in the playoffs.
After a terrible 32-point loss, (142-110) at home against the Bulls earlier this week, George acknowledged that they were not playing as if they still thought this was a possibility. In this way, the Embiid news should be clarifying: The dream of competing for something meaningful this season is officially over and done with.
