Embiid’s athleticism in his rookie year
Keep in mind that this version of Embiid already had 2 foot surgeries that kept him out for 2 years.
He was even more athletic in college.
Yeah, we never got to see Embiid at his athletic peak. Same with Zion.
Zion in college was probably the most athletic player I have seen since peak LeBron
had a dude in my geometry class u dont know bout
Was it you bro
mans blew out a shoe on takeoff. I think we seen what Peak Zion looked like
Well, yeah we did. His peak was when he was at his most athletic.
We may not have seen him reach his potential, but we did see a peak.
Brother that hurts. Truly. I love watching dudes that seem like they have a possibility to push the boundaries of man. Sucks that embiid and zion will never reach their potential
Let’s all knock on wood for Wemby that he stays healthy!
At least with Embiid it was just freak injury bad luck he couldn’t control. Zion just can’t put down the junk food and more importantly doesn’t seem that motivated
There’s been plenty of rumors about Embiid’s lack of commitment to his fitness beyond his injuries.
I cannot even imagine what Embiid would be without injuries. What a demon he used to be.
Reminds me of KP, he used to play reckless as a rookie in NY.
I was about to post the latter. If y’all think this looks good you should’ve seen Joel at Kansas.
I know most people aren’t high on Wiggins but Embiid and Wiggins in college together was unreal amounts of athleticism. Wiggins was the bounciest player I’ve ever seen. His second jump didn’t make sense. And I’ve never seen a guard block more jump shots. Then Embiid would come in and make it clear who the best prospect was. Which is nuts because Wiggins went number 1 in the draft and was NBA rookie of the the year.
By the end of the college season Embiid was the consensus #1. He only dropped to #3 after he broke his foot during pre-draft workouts
I remember seeing how crazy his footwork was in college. They called him the next Hakeem.
I didn’t know he had this kind of athleticism.
He was injured at Kansas as well! He was in and out of the lineup all season with back injuries. You probably have to go back to Montverde to see a healthy Joel
Part of being an athlete is knowing how to maintain your body, especially if you’re a 7 footer.
That’s ridiculous injury’s can just be purely unlucky
we just saw Jalen Williams come back from a 12+ month injury to snap his leg. Another 12+ months out, is that on him for not maintaining his body? Lol
Totally different injuries tho. Embiids injuries are ALL stress related due to his poor conditioning and foot placement, as well as his lack of thought for energy consumption. He did get his orbital bone randomly busted up tho I’ll give you that.
You have some control of course, but Embiid’s injuries couldn’t have been entirely prevented even if he had spent his entire life doing whatever LeBron does to stay healthy. Some guys are just more injury prone than others.
He literally gets hurt in this video
And this is why he doesn’t move like that anymore
I think he’s also gained a lot of weight
I think its an endless loop — hurt himself -> gain weight -> hurt himself again bc weight gain -> gain weight again -> repeat
Obviously he should be holding himself accountable for the weight but just a potential theory
The weight seems to be at least somewhat intentional with how easily he dropped weight this year. IMO he wanted the strength to be able to bully ball other centers.
He just like me fr.
Except the bit about being a professional athlete
or he just gained weight and that’s what’s contributing to his injuries.
He’s like the modern day Shawn Kemp.
Hes lost a ton of weight since his rookie year
and still never figured out how to land
Dude also does not maintain his body lol. His weight issues have been recurring since super early in his career. A testament to his skill that he was dominant despite that
I remember early in his career when he was hurt there was some article about how the team was concerned that his diet consisted entirely of like candy and shirley temple’s
I was gonna say, how many nasty falls does he have in this clips package
This guy really never learned how to land correctly after he jumps. Soooooo stiff legged every time
I thought his knee exploded on that one play.
First thing I noticed.
So you only noticed something 6 clips in. Interesting.
literally thought it was a blank video then it cut to Embiid falling on the ground and grabbing his leg like always then back to nothing
Amazing. Truly
His landings are so bad holy
Reckless on purpose
Not going to pretend I’m an expert but I just think his mechanics are off man. He’s trying to land with straight legs constantly. His only good landings in this video are when he’s able to hang on the rim with enough force to land straight and lightly.
For someone so utterly athletically gifted he’s the complete and utter opposite when it comes to landing lol.
DRose type of landing.
Looks nonchalant atleast ig?
Don’t understand why more players don’t hang onto the rim as long as possible to lesser the force of the landing.
Slip off the rim and land on your head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtiu9hLBlxE
Nope I should not have watched that ☹️
Got a concussion just watching that
I totally forgot about that one, scary ass fall
The moment JB became the smartest guy in the room
The way he dunked most of those in this video that would have been a very rough on his arm and shoulder also potentially for his back and spine. Dude was massive and explosive, just hanging on with one arm would have been madness
It’s a tech
It’s only a tech if you pull yourself up
Oh
Tatum does that all the time
Embiid isnt in enough conversations as the biggest what if of all time
Even with a lot of this athleticism zapped from earlier career injuries he could’ve been a 3xMVP if he stayed healthier later on
His body was already pretty toasted by 2024 when he averaged 36/12/6/1/2 on 65%TS in 33mpg lmao
Offensively he was basically having the season Luka has had so far with elite rim protection to back it up. And again, he had already lost a ton of athleticism at this point… imagine what he could’ve been
At that point in his career he was still plenty athletic. Post kuminga falling on his meniscus though he’s lost it all
Not compared to his younger days. He had already lost a ton by that point, and I think people forget that because of how much he’s lost now
He was almost a 3x MVP even still, and arguably should have been at least a 2x MVP
Well he got probably the max out of his body, playoff success aside. Don’t think many expected him to play long enough to be an MVP.
Crazy to think about because he basically did …. But also, what if ..
because he is not a huge what if since he did a lot already, 2x scoring champ, 1x mvp, multiple all nba first team
I’m reminded of Penny Hardaway. All NBA in like year two or three and then injuries took it all away.
I mean, it’s a bit of a dead end conversation, it’s generally agreed upon to be Walton. I’d also have Grant Hill, Larry Bird (college hand and back injuries), Yao Ming, and Arvydas Sabonis ahead pretty easily.
2023-24 embiid was better than walton and im a huge walton guy
Yeah im gonna call bullshit on that one
Yao is so overrated lol. He was a star, but we basically did see him in his prime and he was never an MVP tier player.
Even without this athleticism from his early days, if Embiid just stayed healthier later on he wins at least 2 if not 3-4 MVPs
It’s literally only because he’s unlikable. Not because he didn’t have debilitating injuries from before his NBA career even started.
Nah even healthy, I’d choke in the playoffs. Not passing eastern semifinals
he just clutched a win against the celtics down 3-1 a week after appendix surgery. He is not a choker
Losing a 3-2 lead against the Hawks and Celtics does make you one though
He had an injured/recently repaired knee both of those series and was still the best player on the team
All reserved for rose fir some reason
Idk I went into a thread asking that very question recently and embiid was at the top.
I feel too often the narrative on a player gets consumed by his decline in the current moment rather than celebrating how good he was at his best. His best is one of the most talented players to ever don a 76ers uniform.
One of the all time great scorers the leagues ever seen. Mid range jumper was automatic for years
the most talented sixer ever imo. AI was great but embiid put up 33 10 rebounds on 54% from the field in his mvp year while being a good defender. He is as good of a big man as you can be
Statistically on a per-minute basis over a good portion of his career that argument holds water. What was astounding to me (and my father as we discussed it) was every year for several years we thought we had seen Embiid at his peak. “How could he get any better?” we would remark. Yet somehow year after year he would continue to elevate his game beyond what we saw the year prior. Couldn’t believe it was possible.
Didn’t Wilt use to play for the 76re?
So easy to look up, nephew (it’s yes))
Ever bro
His best was top 2 player in the nba which is pretty high up there
for 2023 and 41 games in 2024 he looked like the best. He was averaging like 36 points for the first half of 2025 before the injury
On a very easy schedule. It was a very backloaded season for the Sixers.
The shit he was doing that year he could have been doing to anybody. He dropped 51 on the Wolves while being guarded primarily by Gobert
Even at this stage he looked like an injury waiting to happen. Something about the way he moves.
I saw on the fantasy football sub, there’s a guy who studies the way people run and cut on routes or plays. He said some people are naturally more inclined getting hurt because of their natural body alignment and the muscle symmetry or lack there of
That’s pretty logical. Just watch humans moving for a while and the variances in balance, symmetry, coordination, awareness, muscle tone, so many factors. There are variances in bone density and muscle composition.
I’ve read women athletes are more prone to knee ligament injuries due to skeletal differences, like relatively wider hips/pelvis.
If that is true, it would seem to follow that body/skeletal shape would have an impact on anyone’s injury risk, even on an individual to individual basis.
Woman are much more likely to tear their ACL yes. They have wider hips to allow room during childbirth (which increases lateral forces on the knee) and during the menstrual cycle they have more laxity in their ligaments at certain points due to hormone level changes.
Mickey Van de Ven, a defender in the PL, spent an entire summer reshaping his physique and running technique because he was heavily prone to hamstring injuries. Hasn’t been too bad for him since
Bill Simmons has being saying this for at least seven or eight years, but if it was cut into a clip and posted on any sports Reddit, every comment would be calling him an insufferable moron who has severely declined.
Is this when ppl talk about goata?
Every landing looked funky.
Only fell twice in this highlight reel
This is exactly how I feel about wemby right now. It’s why I think the possible goat talk is kinda silly with him right now. Guys this big always get injured and they never come back the same
I know this sounds dumb but I feel the and way about Luka. He starts getting tired and moving lazy and I feel like it contributes to his injuries
Very well could. I haven’t gotten that with him, but perceptions vary.
This next game watch closer to the end of the 2nd quarter and late 3rd quarter. That’s when he starts to hunch and slouch a lot. That’s what I’m talking about, it’ll be clear it’s because he’s pushing through being tired
NBA redditors spend 1 post without hating on Luka challenge: IMPOSSIBLE
He fat
I’m a Laker fan lol. I’m not even shitting on him and saying he has bad cardio or anything like that. His usage level is incredibly high, of course he’s going to get tired. I’m talking about his form once he does get tired.
it’s true, luka looks sluggish and like he cant be healthy for a whole year, he is great when he does play ofc
At this stage he was 2 foot surgery deep (with a horrible medical team taking care of him). Keeping in mind that Joel started to play at 16.
Contrary to most people, he didn’t learn his fundamentals at a young age
I felt it in my knees watching him land in this compilation
The D-Rose type landings explain all the knee issues lol
Man those years were fun
Brett Brown era sixers was so fun, miss that man
I saw him switch onto prime John Wall and clamp him up lmao dude was insane
I have never been more confident on a big man guarding a switch than that version of embiid. All the guards would blow by him only to be blocked. Only wemby probably but they dont try him anyways lol.
He’s already a HOFer. But injuries robbed him from being one of the greatest big men ever.
One of the most impressive players I remember. Zion. Wemby. Shaq.
We’ll never know. I think of him as more of a harden type… foul baits unsuccessfully in the biggest moments
Well that’s just recency bias. He is kinda hard to watch as his so slow and foul baits but after all the injuries his endured, it’s cool that his still playing
And reducing Harden to nothing but a failed foul baiter is a little dismissive anyway. Like yeah he may have adopted a style that frustrated a lot of people, but the dude was fucking good
Statistically, his best playoff series was against the Knicks in 24, and that the series where he was kicking people in the nuts, eye gouging, elbowing, flinging himself around to foul bait, and grabbing opponents legs to try to injure them. Hard to root for.
harden is a top 5 most skilled scorer of all time, focusing on the foul baiting when it comes to harden/luka/sga/embiid types of talent is odd
Agreed
falling down holding his knee at 0:26 :[
He didn’t start basketball until he was 16
This is a tutorial on how not to land haha. Jesus he was crazy
Its wild he’s lost all of his athletic pop and he’s still a damn good player.
What’s really crazy, is that this is already after 2 foot surgeries. We never got to see what peak athletic embiid would have looked like in the NBA
No doubt. Embiid gets a lot of shit on this sub, but his first five or so years in the league he was one of my favorite players.
He really is a huge what if. If he stayed healthy and at his peak athletically for longer, I think we’re talking about him as a top 5 center all time.
I’m biased obviously, but if really sucks seeing where he’s at now even if he’s still a great player
I dont think you’re that far off honestly. Embiid had a complete game. Two way monster who could stretch the floor, had elite footwork and touch, and could effectively pass out of a double.
Without the injuries I definitely think he wins more than just the one MVP, and its a genuine tragedy we never got to see him make a deep playoff run.
I don’t think it’s a biased take. Embiid was insanely good and only started playing at 15, so he could’ve become smarter about the game while keeping all his other strong points.
Yea some parts of his game aren’t great to watch but there was never a dispute about how good he was. Good argument to be made that most of his playoff issues were due to him playing half or fully injured too, but we’ll prolly never know now because he looks like he’s permanently moving through quicksand.
damn i miss his super duper dunks. he had like a 41 point game early in his career against LA when they wore those MLPS blue jerseys, and it was just spectacular to watch. bummer what injuries have done to him.
He had a nasty eurostep that game
Before he moved like an old Patrick Ewing people forget he moved like a young Patrick Ewing
Absolutely unrecognizable
Thought this was about LeBron for a second lol
Its so simple
Hardwood floor; dark colored paint in the key
It wasn’t broken 😑
Him and Derrick Rose gotta be in the top 5 “what if they stayed healthy?”
We have been robbed of some awesome times tbh. It’s a damn shame. I know people hate on him but if he had stayed healthy I think people would have enjoyed him a lot more. His ability at his size was absolutely insane
Baby Shaq
Idk how to explain it, but Embiid used to look like a video game animation the way he moved in the air.
The old Sixers court looked so nice, I like the added red
He is also so fluid for such a big guy. Injuries suck.
Jesus christ man. Could of been a top 5 big of all time imo.