National Post (National Edition)
Embiid remade himself to become one of NBA's best
WASHINGTON • Joel Embiid was always plotting for leave-no-doubt dominance. That two-year, injury-marred delay to his career wasn't merely spent patiently guzzling down his go-to drink, Shirley Temples. Embiid was dedicated to watching film, studying his would-be opposition, spotting their flaws and ways he could exploit them when his day came.
“It gave him psychological advantages of, `This guy can't guard me. I'm going to dominate him when I finally get to play him,'” said Lloyd Pierce, the former Atlanta Hawks head coach who spent five seasons as a 76ers assistant. “And that's what he did. He was dominant from Day 1.”
From the moment Embiid played his first NBA game — he scored 21 points in just 24 minutes against Oklahoma City and bragged on the ride home afterward to his personal trainer, Drew Hanlen, “That was easy” — Embiid has been determined to go down as one of the all-time greats.
“That's when I figured I had a chance,” Embiid once said.
What he lacked was discipline with his diet, sustained focus and an ability to keep his mouth from talking a bigger game than he could deliver. That hasn't been the case this season, though, as Embiid led the Philadelphia 76ers to the top seed in the East for the first time since the Allen Iverson era, and became, along with Nikola Jokic, just the third centre in the past 15 years to finish among the top three finalists for MVP.
So much changed for Embiid before this season — from the birth of his son, Arthur, in September, to a championship-winning head coach in Doc Rivers taking over from the original processor Brett Brown — that it's easy to pinpoint those events as the impetus for his ascension.
People close to Embiid acknowledge the influence of those shifts, especially the arrival of Arthur. But crediting them also undermines the commitment Embiid made after the Boston Celtics' humiliating sweep of the 76ers last post-season. Embiid's playoff averages of 30 points and 12.3 rebounds couldn't offset the absence of all-star Ben Simmons or a flawed, mismatched roster. And the loss provided a reminder that the acclaim labels he sought — MVP, champion — couldn't be attained through only his individual exploits.
“I think he just has a sense of humility in what dominance actually is,” Pierce said. “It isn't him being better in his matchup. It's his team outperforming the other team. I think he's gaining more insight into how hard this is.”
Embiid didn't leave his native Cameroon nearly a decade ago just to reach the NBA. He wanted to put his name among the best to ever play. This season, he joined Wilt Chamberlain, David Robinson, Shaquille O'Neal, Russell Westbrook and Giannis Antetokounmpo as the only players in league history to average at least 28 points and 10 rebounds with a player efficiency rating above 30. All of them have MVPs on their resumés. And this comes two seasons after Embiid posted statistical numbers — 27.5 points and 13.5 rebounds — that O'Neal reached only once in his entire hall of fame career.
“Joel knows his legacy is going to be based on championships and MVPs, and he needs to check off those boxes,” Hanlen said in a telephone interview. “Instead of looking at the things he could point fingers at, he really took it upon himself to say, I can never allow myself to have a year where I don't live up to my standards. He went all in.”
The 76ers gave Embiid what he needed, with more outside shooting and a coach who has guided hall of fame talents. But he also returned the favour by committing to getting in better shape, being more decisive and deliberate when he gets the ball in the low post and learning to enjoy passing out of double teams rather than viewing it as some form of capitulation.
Embiid entered this season wanting to show, not tell, that he was the best player in the world by sweeping every MVP award: all-star, regular season and finals. This weird, jam-packed pandemic season wouldn't let him capture the first two.
When the barber for Embiid and Simmons tested positive for the coronavirus, the duo was kept out of a thrown-together all-star game in Atlanta. Then, after a 10-day quarantine in which he could only work on the individual drills Hanlen gave him, an angry Embiid took out his frustrations on the Washington Wizards in his first game back. Embiid had 23 points in 20 minutes, including hammering a dunk over Garrison Mathews before crumpling to the floor in agony.
Embiid thought his season was over, but found out he was going to miss only a few weeks with a bone bruise in his left knee. Season spared. MVP spiked. Nikola Jokic is expected to become the first centre to win the award since O'Neal in 2000.
In previous seasons, Embiid thought the acclaim would come from decisively winning his individual matchups. And if he hadn't done enough shimmying, hand-behind-the-ear-cupping and other playful taunts during 76ers victories, Embiid would use his social media accounts to further shame his fallen foe. It was all in fun.
Embiid's health was his most annoying antagonist, consistently interrupting his ambitions. But the game also found a way of humbling him. The player who had mastered memes became one after Game 7 of the 2019 Eastern Conference semifinals, when the Toronto Raptors' Kawhi Leonard closed the series by hitting a tormenting, tap-dancing jumper over Embiid. That sloppy, snot-nose weeping from Embiid as he headed toward his locker-room became the lasting image of a player who, two years later, is still trying to shake the label as one who can't get it done.
“I know people make fun of the way he was crying, (but) you wish more guys cared as much as he did,” said Norm Roberts, an assistant coach at Kansas, where Embiid starred for one year before going third overall in the 2014 NBA draft. “He's matured so much. I think he re-evaluated himself totally. I think he realized, `I need to be more serious.' He understands where he's at now. They're not the young group anymore. He understands the power that he has, the responsibility that he has.”
Roberts still recalls the youngster whose sweet tooth was so strong, he came by the coach's house for a team dinner and collected a plate full of about eight brownies after the meal. Assuming Embiid was planning to take them back to his dorm room, Roberts went to find something to wrap them.
“He was like, `No. I'm going to put some whipped cream on them and eat them now,'” Roberts recalled with a laugh.
Embiid binged on game film the same way, studying and stealing from his favourites including Hakeem Olajuwon, Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, O'Neal and Carmelo Anthony. In his early days in Philadelphia, Embiid would go over clips with 76ers assistant Chris Babcock and break down Rik Smits and Patrick Ewing, big men who were late-game options for their championship-contending teams in the 1990s. Embiid believes he can be the same during an era in which point guards and unicorns are looked upon to bail out their squads in the clutch.
But getting there also required better conditioning, so that he'd have the endurance to close.
“Have you ever seen an out-of-shape MVP?” Rivers said he asked Embiid as a challenge.
Sleeker and stronger, Embiid is now in the best shape of his career.
Aside from his physique, the other noticeable difference in Embiid is his social media engagement. Embiid labelled himself, “Troel,” because of his tendency to troll people with his edgy, hilarious commentary online, but he has kept his presence to a minimum. Of his 31 tweets the entire season — a very low number for Embiid — only once did he take a humorous jab at an opponent: when he got Donovan Mitchell ejected for complaining about officiating in March.
“Everything comes back to what really matters. Just win. Show up and win,” Pierce said. “And that's what you're seeing from him this season. But now he's got to get to that last stage, and that last stage is the greatest challenge for any competitor.”