User:GhostRiver/embiid

Early life
Embiid was born on 16 March 1994 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. He was born to Thomas Embiid, a colonel in the Cameroon Armed Forces and retired professional handball player, and Thomas's wife Christine.

College career
After receiving offers from the basketball departments at the University of Florida and University of Texas at Austin, Embiid verbally committed to play college basketball for the Kansas Jayhawks in 2012. He told reporters that he settled on Kansas after talking to Luc Mbah a Moute, who praised the Jayhawks' player development program. He was expected to start the 2013–14 NCAA Division I men's basketball season off the bench, as Kansas already had a capable starting lineup, but he drew preseason praise from coach Bill Self, who compared Embiid to Hakeem Olajuwon. In only his third college basketball game, Embiid had 16 points and 13 rebounds in an 86–66 victory over the Iona Gaels. He followed this effort on 30 November against the UTEP Miners, with nine points, six rebounds, and seven blocks in 21 minutes of play. The latter broke Nick Collison's record for blocks by a Kansas freshman. On 10 December, Embiid was placed in the starting lineup, joining three other freshman. He played for 30 minutes in the 67–61 loss to Florida, with six points and six rebounds in the process. By 23 December, he averaged 10.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, with a 68 percent overall shooting rate and a 71 percent two-point field goal completion rate.

On 20 January 2014, after recording a combined 29 points, 20 rebounds, and 13 blocks in a two-game series against Iowa State and Oklahoma State, Embiid was named the Big 12 Conference newcomer of the week. Despite his offensive metrics, Self showed some concern about Embiid's on-court temper, which had led to several technical fouls and game ejections. At the end of the month, Embiid suffered a sprained knee and a bone bruise during a game against Texas Christian University, and while he was given time to rest by Self and team doctors, he was also told that he was lucky not to have suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury. He returned on 17 February for 18 points and eight rebounds in Kansas's 64–63 victory over Texas Tech. On 22 February, Embiid blocked his 63rd shot of the season, breaking Eric Chenowith's record for most blocks by a Kansas freshman. That March, Embiid aggravated a February back injury, and he was placed on rest for the Jayhawks' final two regular season games in the hope that he would be healthy for the Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament and the 2014 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. The injury continued to bother him even after those games, and a spinal specialist diagnosed him with a stress fracture that would cause Embiid to miss the entirety of the Big 12 Tournament and possibly the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Without Embiid, the Jayhawks were quickly eliminated in the NCAA Tournament by Stanford, who defeated Kansas 60-57.

Draft
After significant speculation, Embiid formally announced on 9 April 2014 that he would be leaving the University of Kansas after one season to enter the 2014 NBA Draft. He and Kansas teammate Andrew Wiggins were projected to be top-three draft prospects, with various NBA executives largely unconcerned with Embiid's college injuries. On 19 June, just before the draft, Embiid's agent announced that he had suffered another stress fracture, this time to the navicular bone of his right foot, and that he would undergo surgical repair. The announcement of another injury put Embiid's draft ranking in question: he had been invited to practice with the Cleveland Cavaliers, who held the first overall draft selection, and had been scheduled to exercise with the No. 2 Milwaukee Bucks. Ultimately, the Cavaliers selected Wiggins first overall, while the Bucks took Jabari Parker from Duke University. Embiid, meanwhile, was taken third overall by the Philadelphia 76ers. He was the third Cameroonian basketball player to be taken in the NBA draft, following Mbah a Moute and Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje, and was the highest-drafted player from the country.

Philadelphia 76ers (2014–present)
Embiid, who underwent surgery to place two screws in his fractured navicular bone, was given an original time frame of four to six months of recovery. 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie then clarified that the recovery time was closer to five to eight months, which put Embiid at risk of missing the entire season.


 * 2014–15
 * 2015–16
 * 2016–17
 * 2017–18
 * 2018–19
 * 2019–20
 * 2020–21

Embiid and the 76ers agreed to a four-year, $196 million Designated Veteran Player Extension, commonly know as a "supermax extension", on 17 August 2021. He entered the season with a self-proclaimed desire to expand his playmaking abilities and focus on more than scoring. Through the first two weeks of the season, Embiid was one of several NBA players whose shooting abilities seemed to falter, a deficit that he attributed to the unfamiliar Wilson Sporting Goods basketball that the league adopted after ending their relationship with Spalding. Embiid was the fourth 76er to contract the COVID-19 virus during a team outbreak at the start of November, and health and safety protocols required him to miss at least five games. During his isolation, Andre Drummond took his place in the team's starting lineup. He missed nine games with what he described as a serious case of the illness that led to shortness of breath and severe headaches. Embiid returned on 27 November, scoring 42 points in a 121–120 double overtime loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Public image
To sportswriters and 76ers fans, Embiid has become emblematic of the phrase "trust the process", introduced by former 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie as a way of promising fans that a championship title would follow an extended rebuild.

Relationship with Ben Simmons
Embiid has a fraught relationship with his 76ers teammate Ben Simmons. Rumors of a rift began in 2019, when Simmons accidentally hit Embiid in the face during a game against the Columbus Clippers, to which Embiid had a negative reaction. Embiid clarified afterwards that his reaction was due to an instinctive fear of being hit in the area that had previously suffered a fracture.

In 2020, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer compared Embiid and Simmons's relationship to that of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, who won the NBA championship in 2000 and 2001 amidst their own feud.

This TKTK began to deepen after the 2021 playoffs. In a post-game press conference, Embiid told reporters that he believed the "turning point" in Game 7 was when Simmons failed to make an open shot.