The Philadelphia 76ers have failed to live up to expectations, sitting near the bottom of the Eastern Conference with very little hope of turning things around due to the lingering knee injury of star center Joel Embiid. This prompted the organization to make the incredibly tough decision to shut down Embiid for the remainder of the season on Friday.
Coming into the season, Embiid was regularly on minutes restrictions due to the lingering injury that held him out for the first nine games of the year.
Throughout the season, Embiid has regularly missed games due to the knee injury. And recently, it was reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania that Embiid needs regular injections to play through the knee injury.
Now that the 76ers are in the midst of a nine-game losing streak and sit at 20-38 on the year, the organization now seems to believe that it isn’t worth it to further risk their star player for the remainder of the season, which appears to be largely meaningless given the hole that they are in.
On Friday, the 76ers organization decided to shut down Embiid for the remainder of the season, first reported by Shams Charania.
Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid has been ruled out for the season. pic.twitter.com/5AHSkwHtPr
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 28, 2025
Embiid has played in just 19 of the 58 games that the 76ers have played in this season. With this in mind, it’s certainly worth questioning whether perhaps this decision should have been made even earlier, as it is clear that he is not operating at 100 percent and hasn’t been for quite some time.
Hopefully Embiid can return back to his MVP form next season. But given the fact that these knee problems date back far further than just this season. So it sure seems like this may be an issue that he may deal with throughout the remainder of his career.
