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Joel Embiid picked up his dribble, scanned for an outlet pass and then, when nothing presented itself, he turned toward the rim. Why not, he thought.
To the gasp of a rowdy Memphis crowd, the Philadelphia 76ers star threw the ball off the backboard to himself and tried to finish with a dunk. He missed. And then, landed squarely on his back.
After the Sixers’ overtime win against the Grizzlies in late December, I said jokingly to Embiid, “I need you to make one of those.” Knowing Embiid’s injury history, the audacity of the play stood out.
“Don’t worry. It’s going to come,” Embiid said with a smile. “I’m going to finish that.”
That exchange said a lot without saying much, but the scene did, too. Embiid sat at his locker postgame in animated conversation with Tyrese Maxey. There was no ice. No heavy wrapping. When Embiid got up to walk through the locker room, he looked spry. Mention it to him now, and Embiid would quickly find a piece of wood to knock on.
This is as healthy as he has been for two years. When you watch him play now, he goes to the basket off the dribble with intention. When he falls, he pops right back up. He’s running with fluidity that wasn’t there at the beginning of the season. This is what he and the Sixers hoped for through the knee surgeries and long road back after a major knee injury at Golden State almost two years ago.
More importantly, Embiid is having fun again. The smile is back. The celebrations on the court have returned. And Philadelphia is showing it has the kind of ceiling that leads to dangerous thoughts of playoff grandeur.
“It means everything,” Embiid told The Athletic. “I can’t sit here and say that I thought this would happen again. I was skeptical that I would have a chance of being this consistent. That’s why I’m kind of emotional about it. I think there were a lot of people that thought this would never be possible again. So, I’m happy that I’m getting the chance to play again and be consistent again. I just want to keep playing, and keep trying to get better every single night. So, this definitely feels great.”
The consistency is what makes Embiid a little more emotional. The steps forward are what prompt the celebrations.
A few days after the missed dunk in Memphis, Embiid caught the easiest dunk of his career at the end of a win over the New York Knicks. It was uncontested, but Philadelphia’s win was all but guaranteed. Embiid ran up the floor, arms outstretched, as if he and the Sixers had won the NBA title.
Joel Embiid was ELATED after his 1st dunk of the season 😆@sixers defeat the Knicks and secure third straight W! pic.twitter.com/ivFQ0rfdsL
— NBA (@NBA) January 4, 2026
Embiid caught some criticism on social media over that one. But it wasn’t the dunk itself, or even the fact that it was his first dunk of the season, that made Embiid celebrate like this. It was about how long his road has been to get back to this point.
Last season, on the nights he didn’t play, Embiid would come to the arena later than his teammates. It hurt him having to see his teammates dress for a game that he knew he wouldn’t be a part of. Some nights, he would stay at home, unsure of what the rest of his basketball career would amount to. Those were dark days and nights. It makes him appreciate his health a lot more now.
“Whoever criticized that doesn’t have the empathy to know how much I’ve been through,” Embiid said. “I didn’t know whether I would be able to play at this level again. I’m not quite there, but I’m getting there. It just feels good to be able to be in this position.”
Embiid’s level of play has been terrific of late. Over his last 11 games played, he’s averaging 23.8 points, 13.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.2 blocked shots per game. He’s gaining more synergy with Maxey, and when you add in Paul George and rookie guard VJ Edgecombe, it gives a sense of how talented the Sixers can be when they are fully healthy.
Philadelphia’s offense has become smoother, too. At the beginning of the season, the Sixers felt like two different teams: one with Embiid and another without him. The balance has been there a lot more of late. Maxey and Edgecombe have been so potent as a backcourt that the Sixers consistently push the basketball when Embiid is off the floor. The pace has slowed down a bit with Embiid, particularly in the half court, but the 31-year-old is running more in transition and feeling stronger.
“What we love is that he looks happy,” Maxey told The Athletic. “We want him to be happy, more than anything. And he looks healthy. I think the thing that I’m most proud of is that he’s staying on top of his treatment. He’s staying on top of getting ice and seeing the training staff. Just seeing him healthy, that is the stuff that really matters.”
What is Embiid doing right? His two-man game with Maxey out of pick-and-roll has started to yield good shots for the Sixers. He’s playing with a lot more force off the dribble than he did at the beginning of the season. His jumper from 3-point range isn’t where he needs it to be yet, but his efficiency from inside the arc has been excellent.
In a win over the Orlando Magic last Saturday, Embiid showed a willingness to play bully-ball and get to the basket against smaller defenders. That is an indication that he’s feeling better and more confident in exploding off the knee. Early in the season, the Sixers protected Embiid and limited him to 20-25 minutes, even taking him out of multiple close games in fourth quarters. At the beginning of the season, Embiid’s defense suffered, even his most underrated attribute: his elite rim protection.
He’s starting to get that back.
“I think the encouraging thing is that he still has another level that he can get to,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said. “I think the biggest thing is that he’s stringing some games together, one after the other. He’s doing the same, applying to daily work. I think it’s important for him to continue to keep playing. He’s feeling better, and he’s getting into a rhythm. I think the guys are playing extremely hard around him, and he’s seeing a team with a chance for some growth. I always said that our best version as a team is when he’s out there.”
This is the biggest departure from what the Sixers have been. Two years ago, when Embiid went down with the injury, that team made the postseason and lost to the Knicks in the first round. Last year proved to be a nightmare that nobody around the organization would like to revisit. Finding Edgecombe in the draft and trading for shooting guard Quentin Grimes laid the foundation for what came this year.
Now, the Sixers are fifth in the Eastern Conference, which feels wide open. When healthy, few teams can match the top-end talent that Philadelphia puts on the floor. For Embiid, that’s given him a reason to keep pushing.
“I for sure won’t take this for granted,” Embiid said. “I felt bad not being able to play with my teammates last season. That’s why it feels good to be able to have some consistency. It feels good to be able to play almost every night.”
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Tony Jones is a Staff Writer at The Athletic covering the Philadelphia 76ers and the NBA. A native of the East Coast and a journalism brat as a child, he has an addiction to hip-hop music and pickup basketball, and his Twitter page has been used for occasional debates concerning Biggie and Tupac. Follow Tony on Twitter @Tjonesonthenba
