Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid. Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

76ers' Joel Embiid: 'Hard to have trust' as knee issue continues

By Sai Mohan | Last updated Feb 21, 2025 9:04 AM ET

The 76ers were meant to "trust the process," which they did by investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Joel Embiid. Unfortunately, Embiid has lost the "trust" in his ability to reciprocate due to his health issues.

Embiid's disastrous season continued Thursday as he shot 3-of-9 in his team's 124-104 loss to the Celtics. The former MVP has been dealing with a knee issue throughout the season, causing him to miss 37 of the Sixers' 55 games.

Following Thursday's loss, a year after undergoing surgery to fix a meniscus tear, Embiid sounded like a defeated man.

"The way I was playing a year ago is not the way I'm playing right now," Embiid said, via PHLY Sports. "It sucks ... I probably need to fix the problem, and then I'll be back at that level. But it's hard to have trust when you're not yourself."

Joel Embiid, on whether the knee is limiting him:
"The way I was playing a year ago, it's not the way I'm playing right now. It sucks. But I believe ... I probably need to fix the problem and then I'll be back at that level, but it's hard to have trust when you're not yourself."… pic.twitter.com/CneQ5zTTMA
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) February 21, 2025

Some analysts have urged the 76ers to shut Embiid down for the season to deal with his injury. If Embiid were to undergo surgery in the offseason, it could potentially lead to another extended absence in the 2025-26 season.

At the start of the season, the 76ers were confident in Embiid's ability to stay healthy, given his performances at the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, with each passing game, it became evident that the 7-footer is nowhere close to the player who averaged a career-high 34.7 points last season.

Sai Mohan

A veteran sportswriter based in Portugal, Sai covers the NBA for Yardbarker and a few local news outlets. He had the honor of covering sporting events across four different continents as a newspaper reporter. Some of his all-time favorite athletes include Mike Tyson, Larry Bird, Luís Figo, Ayrton Senna and Steffi Graf.

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