Joel Embiid returned to the court tonight with his Philadelphia 76ers after more than two months of absence: the U.S.-portported center was on the floor for 29 minutes, finishing with 6/14 shooting, 12/12 from the lunette for a total of 24 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals, plus 6 turnovers, figures that earned a very important 109-105 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder (Holmgren 22, Wiggins 15, Dort 15).
After the game, Joel Embiid lingered in front of reporters’ microphones, expressing how difficult it was, and is, to live with his recent injury:
This injury has been a hard blow to me mentally. I paid the price, it was not good at all. Even today I’m still not mentally where I should be, but I love playing basketball and I want to play, I want to take every opportunity to be on the court.
For some strange reason, this injury was different from the others. It was frustrating, I fell into depression: it took me a while to recover, and I still haven’t come out of it completely.
The meniscus injury suffered by Joel Embiid forced him to stay more than 60 days off the court and prevented him from being in the running for individual season awards, as he will end the regular season with fewer than 65 games played.
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Player and coach class of ’91, when he is not in the gym he is in front of his PC writing about basketball (with BU since November 2012) or watching his beloved Grizzlies. He was editor-in-chief for Legabasketv’s Serie A Beko Live broadcast for the 2015 and 2016 seasons along with Matteo Gandini.
