Joel Embiid was out for the Philadelphia 76ers‘ game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday with a knee injury and hit an unwanted milestone in the process. Embiid, who is in his 11th season in the NBA, has now missed 400 regular season games in his career, a ridiculous number.
The way things are going, it won’t be too long before Embiid will have missed more games than he has played. He has featured 446 times in total in the regular season for the 76ers, which means he has missed 47.3% of their games since being drafted with the third pick of the 2014 NBA Draft. That’s just hard to fathom. Here’s a season-by-season breakdown of Embiid’s career.
2014-15: Played 0, Missed 82
2015-16: Played 0, Missed 82
2016-17: Played 31, Missed 51
2017-18: Played 63, Missed 19
2018-19: Played 64, Missed 18
2019-20: Played 51, Missed 22
2020-21: Played 51, Missed 21
2021-22: Played 68, Missed 14
2022-23: Played 66, Missed 16
2023-24: Played 39, Missed 43
2024-25: Played 13, Missed 32
A bulk of those missed games for Embiid were in his first three seasons but it’s concerning that the number has gone up in this season and the one before. It certainly doesn’t bode well for the future.
Fortunately for Embiid, all that missed time hasn’t hurt his pockets. Salaries in the NBA are guaranteed, for the most part, and thanks to that, the seven-time All-Star would have earned $265.8 million after this 2024-25 season.
Embiid will nearly double that amount in the next four seasons as well. The 76ers will pay him $55.2 million in 2025-26 and after that, a three-year, $192.9 million extension will kick in.
With Embiid now being 30 years old, he isn’t going to get healthier, which means even more missed games. So, it would be a shock if he hadn’t missed more games than he had played at the end of that three-year deal.
It’s a shame that Embiid’s body has broken down as often as it has. We have seen this happen so many times to great big men over the years and you wonder how differently his career would have panned out if not for all the injuries.
Sure, Embiid has come up short in the postseason at times but a fair few of his playoff failures can be attributed to injuries. His body just seems to break down at the worst possible moments and you wonder if he will ever capture that elusive NBA title.
Even if Embiid never wins a title, he can be proud of the career he has had. He has won an MVP to go with two scoring titles and there aren’t too many in league history who have done that.
Getting back to the present, though, Embiid missing so much time this season has resulted in the 76ers having an 18-27 record. They were expected to be title contenders and might end up missing the playoffs.
Frustrations are growing within the building and the 76ers plan on having a sit-down conversation with Embiid regarding his constant unavailability. They reportedly want clarity regarding his status so they can choose which direction they’ll go in this season. If the 76ers shut down Embiid for the season in the near future, we’ll know how that conversation went down.
Thank you for being a valued reader of Fadeaway World. If you liked this article, please consider following us on Google News. We really appreciate your support.
