I Feel Like JoJo
A look at what Joel Embiid means to the Sixers
Barack Obama gave the American people hope, hope for a better tomorrow. 8 years later, that hope is still strong in all of us. But that’s not what this is about. Hope is a strong emotion; rebellions are built on hope. Hope gives people a reason to believe in something, no matter how outlandish or against the odds it may be. Joel Embiid represents hope for not only 76ers fans, but for the NBA as a whole. Embiid embodies The Process™. I promise I will try not to turn this into a referendum on Sam Hinkie’s tenure, but no promises.
In its simplest form, Embiid represented what the process was all about; take a big risk with an even bigger reward. And God damn if that reward is even bigger than we thought it was going to be. Sam Hinkie spent 3 years searching for his superstar to build around and he found it in year 2. It’s just a shame that it took that superstar till year 4 to start playing and that Hinkie didn’t get to build his team around him.
The Process™ was never concrete. It was the idea that you tear down your team and build it from the ground up, with draft picks and unproven young guys. Everyone in the NBA tiptoes around it, but the way to win in the NBA is with a superstar and the best (best being a relative term here) way to get a super star is at the top of the draft. And how do you get to the top of the draft? By being as bad as possible. Hinkie did this well. He tore the entire team down to its core and started a journey to a lot of top draft picks. But it’s not like Hinkie tore down this team just to get a top draft pick; he got incredible value for the players he traded. You can look for yourself at the return he got for Thad Young, Spencer Hawes, and Evan Turner. That’s not what this article is about. The fact is Hinkie put this team in a position to get incredible talent, and after half a season, Embiid is above and beyond an incredible talent. He is the super star Hinkie wanted.
Drafted in 2014, and after sustaining a foot injury that would cost him 2 seasons, Joel Embiid has finally made his debut and is turning heads around the NBA (except for the actual players apparently). Almost halfway through his rookie season, Embiid is the front runner for Rookie of the Year, and got snubbed for an All-Star start. Although he is only averaging 25 minutes a game, he is averaging .5 offensive win shares with 20 points, 8 rebounds, and has a 46FG% and makes 35% of his 3’s. On defense, he is averaging 2.4 blocks per game and 1.5 Defensive Win Shares. Overall he has a 24.1 PER (15th in the league, right above Lowry), and 2.0 win shares. With Embiid on the court, the Sixers play like an NBA team fighting for a playoff spot; with Embiid off the court, the Sixers are just another run of the mill bad team. Embiid has put this franchise on his back and is carrying it to the Promise Land. Strike that. He’s carrying it to the Process Land. I’ll see myself out. Here’s the point. Joel Embiid is good, like really good. Like good enough to be in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year. Like good enough to be a franchise player and a dominant force for the next generation.
But Embiid’s dominance doesn’t end on the floor. No no no. His social media game is second to none. From his Instagram posts after every game with locations varying from “Bullshit Land” “Harambe” and “Dicktown” to his incredible Twitter game, not to forget his Instagram live obsession. The one constant in every one of his social media posts? His embrace of The Process. Every Instagram and tweet end with some variation of #TrustTheProcess. He embraced The Process from the very beginning, never letting the incredible hype and high expectations get to him. He understands where he came from and why he’s here. He knows that Hinkie died for our sins, even posting that as a caption on Instagram. After Dario Saric’s monster blocks against the Raptors, Embiid mocked those reporters who thought that Saric would never come over, taking to twitter and saying “”Dario Saric is never coming over” #TrustTheProcess”. He hears all the negative news about him and the team, but he turns it into social media jokes, i.e. the Shirley temple incident. Because of his play on the court and lightheartedness off the court, Embiid has found his way into not only every single Process Trusters’ heart, but the hearts’ of fans across the NBA. Embiid makes the game fun; he’s just a kid who wants to play basketball and have fun, and that’s something we all can relate to.
Many Philly journalists never thought Embiid would play or be the player he would have been before the injuries. But after half a season, some of those journalists have started to come around. The tweets quickly turned from “Embiid may never play” or “Embiid will never be the player he was supposed to be” to “Embiid is already a dominating force”. The haters became believers, and we that have always believed welcomed them with open arms to the right side of history. For those who stay on the wrong side of history (@hoopscritic @howardeskin @smalltermp), we’ll see you at the parade.
There are a million things I can write about Embiid, and maybe one day I will write about all of them, but until then, I leave you with what Joel Embiid means to Sixers fans.
He didn’t ask to be the savior for the Sixers, but that is exactly what he has become. He hears the “Trust The Process” chants at every game; he hears the “Hinkie” and “Shirley Temple” chants and, most importantly, he hears the “MVP” chants at every game, home and away. He didn’t ask to have the hopes and dreams of an entire city riding on him, but that’s exactly what he got. And Embiid embraced it with open arms, taking it upon himself to tweet and Instagram “Trust the Process” and “TTP”. He took it upon himself to become the living embodiment of The Process™. He gives fans hope that there are better days ahead. He gives Process Trusters something to point at when people ask “so what exactly was the point to lose all those games?”. Joel Embiid is the next big thing in the NBA.
