Adrian Fedkiw
Tired of the workout clips on Instagram? Don’t worry, Joel Embiid’s NBA debut might be right around the corner.
Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown was a guest on Zach Lowe’s ESPN podcast The Lowe Post. After discussing some Argentina basketball and coaching Manu Ginóbili before delving into Australian basketball, Lowe asked Brown if Embiid is on track to play in the preseason towards the end of the podcast.
“Yes, he is.”
Music to our ears. But before he answered that, Brown delved into the outlook for Embiid:
“I just left my third consecutive day workout with Joel a half an hour ago – 45 minutes ago, 10 minutes before you and I got on the phone. He’s just so on track. He’s on track in his head, he’s on track physically. I do hear what you say, ‘Him dunking on a little workout coach ain’t getting it done anymore.’ I do agree with that, but I will tell you that behind close doors – physically, mentally, recent scans, medically – everything is pointing in the right direction. You know, we’re just very excited.”
Brown also stated that there’s going to have to be some patience exemplified by Embiid.
“There really has to be a high degree of patience that he has first with himself. You know, he really didn’t play basketball his junior year [in high school]. He played I think 10 minutes his senior year in high school, He played 70% of his first college year. He was injured his first two NBA seasons. I mean, just do the math. The timeline, the minutes on the basketball court.”
The future of Sixers basketball is bright:
“There’s a real feel-good mentality right now in our city. I think everybody’s starting to get excited. People do, you know, wonder how this is all going to play out. This is just one more phase, one more wave in how we build our program. We just have such fantastic young, talented pieces to try to put that puzzle together. Everybody’s excited here in Philadelphia.”
Embiid’s debut might be October 4th, when the Sixers open the preseason against the Boston Celtics. It’d be his first game action in over two years.
You can listen to the full podcast here.