Embiid’s insistence on playing outshines Pop’s old injury act
PHILADELPHIA » Sore as it was, the first thing Joel Embiid did as he reported to work Wednesday night was raise his right hand. If the Sixers wanted him to play against the San Antonio Spurs, he would volunteer.
One problem: “It’s not my decision,” he said.
It’s rarely the players’ decision to play in the NBA, which long ago stumbled across a blurred line between entertainment and a commodities market. The franchises so heavily invested in even the most ordinary professionals, they treat them with care that borders on arrogance.
Rare is it a consideration that fans are asked to spend their Christmas bonuses on one game ticket, not when the issue is whether to use a player or keep him shielded for a later appearance. It’s how it happened Wednesday that the Spurs, making their only appearance in South Philadelphia this season, would rest likely Hall of Fame guards Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, sit Rudy Gay with right heel bursitis and scratch Kawhi Leonard on a back-to-back-games option.
That is, some other team basically wore San Antonio uniforms, some team other than what the fans had the reasonable right to expect to see.
So who were the Spurs starting, anyway? “Well, let me think for a moment,” said Gregg Popovich, about an hour before the game. “Dejounte Murray at the point. Bryn — what’s his last name?” Reminded that it was Forbes, Popovich continued. “Forbes. I think Kyle Anderson will start at the three. And the two big guys.”
Popovich is 68, is booked for the Hall of Fame, and is as successful a coach as there has been in his industry. While it may have been an understandable slip that he forgot a starting player’s last name, his disregard for the importance of the matter was stunning. Since Popovich has been running the same tired play for years, it was not a surprise that he would give zero consideration to playing, say, Ginobili in what likely would have been his last game in Philadelphia. Didn’t he once explain a night off for Tim Duncan as “DNP-Old”?
“We used to do it all the time,” said Brett Brown, long a Popovich assistant. “He was one of the pioneers. I had to escort Duncan, Parker, Kawhi and Danny Green through the Orlando public airport. Our charter plane gets a flat tire. And I’ve got to get them through the airport and bring them back to San Antonio as the rest of the team goes on to play the Miami Heat for a national TV game. It was an incredible experience.
“That was one of the first times that people got a little bit upset. And these situations here, he will just empower the program. The system prevails. Over 82 games, when you just roll into a city, roll into a city, there is a system that just moves on. Hubie Brown used to say, ‘The dogs bark and the caravan moves.’ And this is one of those things. They just roll into town to town to town and their system, their offense and their defense, whoever is in it, wins.”
On some levels, Brown has tried to use the Spurs model to build the Sixers. It’s essentially why he was hired. The difference is that Popovich has won five world championships, while unholy, unprofessional franchise policies have prevented Brown from being able to coach one winning team.
Fortunately for Brown, he has Embiid, who continues to resist the organization’s instinct to rest him without overwhelming cause. It was just after he signed a $148,000,000 contract extension early in the season that Embiid snarled at the club’s plan to restrict his nightly playing time. He used two words, both vulgar, one an adjective, the other a twosyllable noun. Shortly after, the minutes restrictions disappeared.
So there Embiid was Wednesday, clearly in pain. According to Brown, the center’s hand was so sore during a practice Tuesday that catching a ball was like touching a “hot stove.” But Embiid was willing to play, and so he did, being cleared to participate literally 20 minutes after the Sixers officially declared him scratched.
The entire pregame dance was a good indication of the power sources of the two organizations. Embiid has enough sway to play though pain, even on a night when his head coach declared him “very doubtful.” In San Antonio, it’s Popovich who makes the calls.
“Pop can do whatever he wants,” Brown said. “He is one of those privileged coaches in a position to question government and rules. He just goes where he goes.”
Unlike the Sixers, the Spurs have enough veteran depth to be presentable even when the most marketable players are inactive. They did start LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol Wednesday, using a lineup that would make them competitive against most teams.
As for the Sixers, who are ever in a struggle to hit the .500 mark, they already are close to the point where they need Embiid, injured or not.
“It’s not good, but it’s the nature of the business,” Embiid said. “Stuff happens.”
Sometimes, it can be overcome. In two locker rooms yards from each other Wednesday, that was clear.