Nick Piccone
Joel Embiid is a treasure to this city. Yeah, the Sixers have recently made headlines for basically playing their fans for fools the last month, but they probably wouldn’t even make headlines without this guy playing at a crazy level during his first full season in the NBA. But it may not have happened at all, even after the Sixers drafted him with the third overall pick in 2014.
Embiid’s making the rounds for the NBA’s All-Star Weekend, and on ESPN Radio, he admitted that he thought about quitting basketball after his two surgeries on his foot.
“Two and a half years that I missed, I missed that and I also lost my brother. I was such in a bad place. I wanted to quit basketball. I just wanted to go back home and just leave everything behind. It’s all about having fun. All that darkness I think it’s my time to have fun.
That was right after my second surgery. I just couldn’t do it anymore. I just wanted to, like, just quit.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard Embiid say he contemplated quitting the sport altogether. He continued on and explained why he didn’t quit, and you can listen to the audio below.
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You can follow Nick Piccone on Twitter (@nickpiccone) and e-mail him at [email protected]. Subscribe to his podcast on iTunes here. Click here to read his pro wrestling articles on PhillyVoice. Follow Philly Influencer on Twitter (@PHL_Influencer), Facebook and Instagram.