NASSAU, Bahamas — Joel Embiid knows the Philadelphia 76ers’ medical staff is going to tell him to ease off more than he would like to at times this season. And while he said Thursday that he’s not going to like that message, he understands it’s the right thing to do to achieve his goal of staying healthy through the playoffs.
“It’ll be tough,” Embiid said after the team’s third practice at a beach resort as part of a five-day training camp in the Bahamas to kick off its season.
“They know that if they have to punch me, slap me, take my stuff away from me [to] not to get on that court, they’re going to have to do it,” he added while smiling. “I might get mad, I might curse people out, but I think it’s a relationship. We’ve been working together for years now. Now I look at the big picture, and I’ve always listened to them, but now it’s even more of the time where I should listen and see what they have to say.”
Embiid is slowly ramping himself up for the start of the season. He missed a large chunk of last season with a knee injury, then played with Team USA until mid-August while helping the Americans claim a fifth straight Olympic gold medal.
Monday, Embiid said he has lost “25 to 30” pounds prior to training camp and hopes to lose some more weight to better manage the rigors of the NBA season.
The focus, of course, is to win an NBA title. Philadelphia has made the playoffs in seven consecutive seasons but failed to advance past the second round in any of them.
“They understand,” Embiid said of the medical staff. “They know me. I’ve already accomplished a lot of things … and there is one thing missing and they know that’s all I care about.”