Joel Embiid, injured again, should not play in the Olympics. He should prepare for the next Sixers season.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s me that’s crazy or if it’s everybody else.

Or maybe it’s just Joel Embiid.

On Thursday, the 76ers’ fragile center addressed the press for the first time since his second surgery on his left knee, which was his third knee injury in seven seasons.

He said, morosely, that he was sad his injury truncated what had been a historic campaign not seen since the likes of Wilt Chamberlain, who lately has come to be the only player comparable to Embiid in NBA history.

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He said, hopefully, that he could return near the end of the Sixers’ remaining 24 games, so he could test the soundness and resilience of the joint and gauge how much he might help the team in the playoffs, if at all.

He said, gamely, that he was not considering shutting his season down, not because it isn’t the wisest thing to do — unquestionably, it’s wiser to heal for months rather than weeks — but because he loves playing basketball so much.

He then said, insanely, that he still plans to play in the Olympics in Paris this summer.

“If I feel good, I’m playing,” Embiid said. “The plan is to play.”

The plan? What plan? The crazy-pants plan? The spit-in-the-eye-of-fate plan? The plan where Embiid travels to France, falls off the Eiffel Tower, and breaks his eyes sockets for a third time?

I wasn’t thrilled that Embiid committed to play in the Olympics before his latest injury. Consider: In 2014, Paul George broke his leg during a Team USA intrasquad scrimmage, and he was a healthy 24-year-old. Embiid will be a patched-up 30-year-old.

This is selfishness. This is foolishness. This is madness.

The Sixers are OK with it.

“Our focus right now is on Joel’s health and supporting him through the rehabilitation process,” team president Daryl Morey said via text Friday. “As one of the best players on the planet — an MVP — if he’s healthy, willing, and able to play in the Olympics for Team USA, he has our support there, too.”

Sigh.

Maybe the Sixers believe it will be beneficial for Embiid to play with the league’s best stars. Maybe they hope he’ll see the work ethic of LeBron James and Steph Curry and better emulate them as he ages. Or maybe they’re just worried about ticking him off.

I get all of that.

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The fact remains that Embiid’s first responsibility lies with the Sixers, who, at the end of this season, will have paid him nearly $230 million. They didn’t pay him all that money to make the last seven All-Star teams. They didn’t pay him all that money to win last year’s MVP award. And they sure didn’t pay him all that money to enjoy a busman’s holiday as part of the quadrennial vanity project that the Dream Team Part Whatever is at the Summer Games.

No, they paid Embiid to win basketball games for Philadelphia. He says he played through knee pain for two months because he owed it to the team. Well, he still owes it to the team, because they owe him a common man’s 10 lifetimes’ worth of money.

Embiid is guaranteed $114 million to play for the 76ers over the next two seasons. The 76ers. Not Team USA. The 76ers.

After his 2014 injury, George missed all but six games of the following NBA season.

Embiid shouldn’t be considering playing for the Under Armour “Next” AAU squad, much less a mish-mash of stylistics masquerading as a basketball team.

He should be at home with his kid, drinking sugar-free Shirley Temples, doing Tom Brady’s TB12 workouts, and eating avocado ice cream. He should be getting leaner, stronger, and even more dominant for what could be his last two chances to validate The Process, failing again for the 11th consecutive year.

For his part, Embiid has been a component of the ridiculous rebuild for the last 10 years ... sort of.

Embiid never has been fully healthy for any full season, including this one. Presuming the Sixers make the playoffs, he will never have been fully healthy in any of his six normal postseasons, including this one (he was healthy for the COVID-bubble playoffs in 2020, which were delayed by five months, in which the Sixers were swept).

And he wants to play a little extra ball? With international rules? Against slapdash teams, desperate to embarrass the mighty U.S. of A.?

It’s not as if Steve Kerr needs Embiid to beat Serbia, or Canada, or whoever. And don’t even bring up America’s 2023 medal-less FIBA showing: When the backup shooting guard for the Knicks is your leading rebounder, you’re not putting your best foot forward. And I love Josh Hart.

What am I missing? Call it bad luck or hard play or whatever, but the truth is, Embiid’s as fragile as a robin’s egg, and harder to put back together.

Embiid did not play a single game his first two years in the NBA because he had to have the same foot surgically repaired twice. He’s had surgery on his left hand, also twice. He’s had surgery on his right hand. He’s broken both eye sockets.

Yes, you read that right: Both. Eye. Sockets.

Embiid plays with disregard for his own safety, which is dumb. He’s a 7-foot, 280-pound monster with the uncommon grace of Fred Astaire and the common sense of Fred Flintstone. He falls as often as France, spends more time on the floor than a break dancer, and jumps into the crowd like he’s Fred Durst.

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I sympathize with Embiid’s situation. I really do. This is a chance to do something rare and special, and, since he’ll be 30 this summer, it might be his only chance — especially since that 30-year-old body is carrying about 50 years of damage, of which he is unaware. Embiid spoke Thursday at an injury press conference, and said he has a 20-year window in which to play in the NBA. This left onlookers wondering if he was on especially strong pain meds.

It must be enticing for Embiid, who’s never won anything. He has a chance to win an Olympic gold medal, which never would have happened if he played for his native Cameroon. He has a chance to win for his adopted country, which he truly loves for its richness and freedoms. He has a chance to play with LeBron, the greatest player of his era. He has a chance to burnish his basketball legacy for his son, Arthur, whose birth in 2020 fundamentally changed Embiid’s level of maturity and professionalism.

He also has a chance of injuring himself.

That is, he has a chance of re-injuring himself.