The absurdity of Joel Embiid is back, and the Sixers matter again

Joel Embiid stood at his locker and spoke thoughtfully, and eloquently about the battles he’d fought and the lessons he’d learned. He detailed the darkness he felt in his mind during another lengthy injury rehab, the strength he found in his family, the joy he felt upon returning to the court. You looked in his eyes and saw the sincerity and the emotion. You looked a little lower, and you saw the professional wrestling T-shirt he’d donned for the interview, its front emblazoned with a bright, fluorescent green “SUCK IT!”

It wasn’t a statement for the haters. It was Embiid being Embiid. He often describes his comic alter-ego as a troll, and there is some truth to it. Really, though, he is an absurdist, his humor derived largely from introducing unserious variables to serious situations and watching the reactions from people who take themselves way too seriously.

It makes a lot of sense when you consider Embiid’s background. Here he is, a kid from Cameroon who did not begin playing basketball until he was 15 years old, now surrounded by a mob of reporters asking him questions about how it feels to be one of the NBA’s greatest players returning to the court to save his team’s season.

The only thing more absurd than that? Doing it while wearing a chintzy Triple-H T-shirt in advance of WrestleMania.

Like everyone who shares his internal wiring, Embiid’s occasional gags are partly a cover, a counterbalance to the sincerity that lurks within. He made that clear on Tuesday night, introducing the home crowd to a surgically repaired and slimmed-down version of himself in an eye-opening 109-105 win over the Thunder. For 29 minutes, Embiid showed everyone what he’d been up to for the previous eight weeks: not just rehabilitating his knee, but preparing his body for a postseason run that looks a lot more possible now than it did a couple of days ago.

An hour before tip-off, he slipped off his sandals, laced up his Skechers, rose from his locker and strode out of the tunnel to a burst of MVP chants. He looked trim and lithe and entirely capable of the sort of performances he will need to extend the Sixers season into May. The final numbers were solid: 24 points, seven assists, three steals. The big picture mattered more.

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid returns against Oklahoma City Thunder after two-month absence following knee surgery

Embiid looked like a player who could end up even better than he was before his surgery to repair the meniscus in his knee. He ran the court, displayed excellent balance, looked lighter on his feet than his pre-surgery self. There were a number of moments you could point to as evidence. The most promising one occurred early in the fourth quarter, when he dribbled the ball the length of the court, drove to the rim, executed a nimble spin move through two defenders, planted on his surgically repaired left leg, and banked in a layup before falling gracefully to the court. A (questionable) offensive foul call negated the play. It did not matter.

This was therapy: for the Sixers, for their fans, and most especially for Embiid.

“This one took a toll mentally, being depressed — it was not a good one,” Embiid said after playing his first game since Jan. 30. “Still not where I’m supposed to be, especially mentally. But I just love to play. Love basketball and I want to play. Any chance I can be out there, I’m going to take it.”

It was only the second time Embiid had spoken publicly since his surgery. The first was about a month ago, before he’d been cleared to return to practice, before the Sixers were staring at an all-but-certain, do-or-die bid in the NBA’s postseason play-in tournament, before a promising season turned into a battle for survival that saw them sink steadily in the standings.

When Embiid last appeared in a game at the Wells Fargo Center, he scored 70 points in a win over the Spurs that brought them to within a half game of second place in the Eastern Conference standings. By Tuesday, they were a game-and-a-half out of seventh. Barring an improbable collapse by the sixth-place Pacers, their postseason fate will depend on them either beating the Heat in a one-game playoff or beating the winner of the 9-10 seed matchup. They are still without Embiid’s dynamic costar, guard Tyrese Maxey, who missed his second straight game with hip tightness.

“I thought I could have been better, but I’m happy with a win,” Embiid said. “We needed that one. I want us to go on a run to finish the season. Every one of these [games] matters. So we have to take them and keep competing. The only thing that I want is us to be healthy, whether it is Tyrese, [De’Anthony] Melton. I just want us to have that chance. We’re not going to be as good without everybody. It’s not just about me.”

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid returns from a knee injury to lead a Sixers comeback win over Oklahoma City Thunder

That said, it is mostly about him, same as always. We saw it throughout the Sixers’ win over the Thunder on Tuesday. It was clunky, sometimes ugly. For large stretches of the game, the Sixers looked like a team that had never played with Embiid before. Which makes sense, because that’s basically what they were. Just before game time, coach Nick Nurse pulled veteran guard Kyle Lowry into his office to tell him that Embiid would be in the lineup.

“I don’t know how to play with this dude,” Lowry said, according to Nurse.

The same was presumably true of Buddy Hield and Cameron Payne. Along with Lowry, none of them were on the roster the last time Embiid was healthy.

But there were plenty of moments when the impact was there.

It was there early in the first quarter, when Embiid drew a double team in the high post, leaving Kelly Oubre Jr. and Nico Batum sharing one defender under the basket. Embiid passed to Oubre, who passed to Batum, who slammed home the easy bucket.

It was there with 4 minutes, 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter, when Embiid hit a jumper out of a pick-and-roll to tie the score at 101.

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It was there with 24 seconds remaining, when Embiid stole the ball from Thunder point guard Josh Giddey above the three-point arc, drew a foul at the other end, and hit both free throws.

“We just have to find our rhythm and flow playing with him again,” Oubre said. “Obviously all eyes are on him when he is at the top of the key, but when we cut, kind of create space and open up the floor a little bit, we are able to get opportunities to score easy buckets.”

Embiid knows how central he is to it all. During his absence, he found himself battling an intense despair as he watched the Sixers struggling without him. He knew how good they had been when he was healthy, and he knew how good they still would be if he’d remained so.

“For some reason, this injury, it was disappointing, it was depressing,” Embiid said. “It took me a while to get over it, and I still haven’t gotten over it. Just have to take it day by day. Look at the positives.”

He says he relied on his family: his wife, Anne, and his 3-year-old son, Arthur. For two months, he found solace and strength in the day-to-day rituals to which he is not typically privy during the season.

“Waking up every single day, taking him to school, picking him up, playing with him all day — it kind of takes your mind away from everything that’s going on,” Embiid said. “And then obviously watching the game at night you get [angry] because you feel like you could help and do something. But I draw on my family. Basketball obviously means a lot, but family also comes first. That’s the thing that got me through it.”

It remains to be seen what these last six games will bring, and however many remain beyond it. Whatever the odds say about a postseason run, it will be a lot more fun now that Embiid is again a part of it.

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid is back. The Sixers now must rush to reintegrate him with playoffs looming.