Jeff Van Gundy was outraged over the suggestion that Joel Embiid could be one of the all-time greats in NBA history.
Embiid had 33 points and 10 rebounds in the Philadelphia 76ers’ 116-95 win over the Toronto Raptors in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Thursday night. He was doing everything from making threes and dunks to blocking shots.
After Embiid was called for a foul on a blocked shot attempt, ESPN’s Mark Jackson began raving about the big man on the network’s telecast of the game.
“This guy’s been dominant. Absolutely dominant. It will be a crime if he leaves this game — barring any injury — not being compared to the best big men that’s ever played this game. He’s gotta be in that discussion. It would be a crime if that’s not the case,” Jackson said.
That’s when Van Gundy jumped in and demanded Jackson "pump the brakes" on his talk. He brought up Shaq, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Patrick Ewing and more.
Van Gundy said Embiid has much more to do in order to get into that conversation. We agree.
As talented as he is, Embiid has only played in 158 career regular-season games, and that’s for a guy who was drafted in 2014. He’s great when he plays, but the issue is he doesn’t play enough. All the other greats played for 20 or so seasons.
When Embiid is still dominating like this in 2031, then we can start talking about putting him in the conversation. When Van Gundy offers a strong opinion, he’s usually not wrong.
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