Credit To Joel Embiid For Playing 26 Minutes Last Night
David Dow. Getty Images.Hell yeah, baby. That's what I'm talking about. You want to talk about the heart of a champion? About grit, determination, and a commitment to both winning and team? Then look no further than Joel Embiid.
Sure, he missed the first 9 games of the season due to a combination of health and suspension. And sure, he's not playing tonight because he's already been ruled out of back-to-backs this season. But Joel Embiid went into his season debut last night against the Knicks with his minutes restriction being somewhere in the 25-30 minutes range. He could have gone out and just played the bare minimum 25. But he knows how much he means to this city. He's going to leave it all out on the court for this team, especially because he knows he already has another night off coming up. So instead of just playing 25 minutes, he goes the extra miles and logs a heroic 26.
Even after he almost died on the court!
Here's the thing--I get that at the end of the day, it's up to the team. It's up to management to try to protect their asset. But holy fuck, man. You already tell everyone that he's only going to play in like 75% of the games at a maximum, I just don't understand how you still put minute restrictions on the games where he does play. At what point are we supposed to believe that Joel Embiid can play 35+ minutes a night for 7 straight games in a playoff series?
At some point Joel Embiid needs to call the shots. At some point he needs to stand up to management and say enough is enough. If this dude is serious about winning, then he'll cut the bullshit and actually play the game. There's legitimately no way he doesn't have the power in that organization to make that call for himself. And even if somehow he has no say in the matter, those 25-26 minutes he plays a night have to be the most dominant 25-26 minutes of basketball. Shaq gets it.