76ers’ Joel Embiid calls dealing with injury issues ‘depressing’
Philadelphia 76ers star big man Joel Embiid has experienced nothing short of a frustrating start to the 2024-25 season due to lingering health issues.
Embiid is going through a mentally and physically taxing process of finding a place where he can push his left knee to where he can play. The former league MVP talked about the difficulties of that journey.
“Depressing,” Embiid told ESPN when asked what the past couple of months have been like for him. “Just trying to figure it out. There’s no injury. Just between the swelling … we’ve got to get it figured out. That’s it.
“I’ve been saying it for the last few months. It’s been extremely depressing. It’s something that hasn’t been figured out, and it’s been extremely annoying, because I would love to play every single game.”
The 30-year-old missed the first nine games of the season due to issues with his knee along with a suspension for an altercation with a team reporter.
Embiid played in four games before he had to sit and miss the last 2 1/2 weeks because of persistent swelling in his knee as well as to tend to personal matters. All that has amounted to him playing in only five games where he is averaging 22.0 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 3.6 assists while shooting 40.7 percent from the floor and 17.0 percent from beyond the arc.
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He has yet to play in any back-to-back scenarios while the 76ers sit with a 7-15 record, putting them among the worst records in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia has won four out of their last five games, but it’s going to take much more than a brief surge to push them back into postseason contention.
If the 76ers hope to have any legitimate shot in the East, Embiid will need to stay on the court.
