Joel Embiid has played his last game as a Philadelphia 76er.
What makes that painfully amusing is the fact that he never played his first game as a Sixer – and it suddenly looks as if he never will.
After sitting out his rookie season in the NBA due to surgery to repair a hairline fracture of the navicular bone in his right foot, it was revealed yesterday that Joel Embiid needs a bone-graft procedure on that same navicular bone. Which means he’ll be sitting out the upcoming 2015-16 NBA season as well.
But I’m going to stick my neck out and predict that Joel Embiid will never play for the Sixers. By the way, last November, I predicted that Shady McCoy wouldn’t play for the Eagles in 2015 and was right on the money.
Getting back to Joel Embiid, I see his name being added to a list that already contains the names of chronic NBA foot-sufferers Bill Walton, Greg Oden, Yao Ming, Andrew Bynum, and Andrew Toney.
The way I see it, the career of Joel Embiid washed up before it ever got started.
Being a General Manager
Just one of the things that free agency elimintated in pro sports was the shrewdness and wisdom needed to be a good general manager. In the old days prior to free agency, general managers had to conceptualize and manufacture trades to improve their teams. They didn’t have a list of free agents to pick through and find the one(s) who could be won over with the highest bids.
In the old days, Sam Hinkie and Ruben Amaro, for instance, would’ve never been hired as general managers.
Here are four monumental trades from the days of yore:
• In 1956, Celtics coach Red Auerbach – also acting as general manager – traded veterans Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan to the St. Louis Hawks for rookie center Bill Russell. In case you missed it, Russell led the Celtics to 11 NBA championships both as a player and coach and was voted league MVP five times.
• In May of 1958, Eagles GM Vince McNally traded Buck Lansford and Jimmy Harris – who? and who? – to the Los Angeles Rams for Norm Van Brocklin. On December 26, 1960, Norm Van Brocklin quarterbacked the Eagles to a 17-13 victory over Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers in the NFL Championship Game at Franklin Field. In case you forgot, that’s the only NFL title in Eagles’ history.
• At the NBA All-Star break in 1965, Sixers owner Ike Richman (also acting as general manager) traded three nondescript players – (not the actor) Paul Neumann, Connie Dierking, and Lee Shaffer – to the San Francisco Warriors for – get this – Wilt Chamberlain. Two years later, Wilt was part of what was arguably “The Greatest Team in Basketball History” that won the 1966-67 NBA championship.
• During the 1972 offseason, Phillies GM John Quinn shipped Rick Wise to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for Steve Carlton – who was a 20-game winner the previous season with the Cards. Carlton went an astounding 27-10 for the ’72 Phillies – a horrendous team that finished 59-97. He compiled a record of 241-161 in 15 seasons in Philly, helped the Phillies win the 1980 World Series, and made the Hall of Fame in 1994.
Those history-changing trades were constructed by real general managers.
But instead of a real general manager, the 76ers have Sam Hinkie.
Hinkie does make trades, but his trades tend to fall into the category of salary-dumps.
Horse-Traders
In the old days, savvy general managers were horse-traders who always checked the horse’s teeth before buying the animal. That way, they never got stuck with lame nags headed for the glue factory.
If horses have navicular bones, you better believe a real general manager would check the horse’s navicular bones. And if they had prior knowledge that a particular horse’s navicular bone was already broken, there’s no way in hell they’d pay a nickel for that lame nag.
Sam Hinkie knew about the broken navicular bone in Joel Embiid’s foot. In other words, he knew that Embiid was lame before the draft was held – yet he still drafted him. So when it comes to being a good horse-trader or a good general manager, Sam Hinkie is one helluva shoemaker.
Old-Heads
Count me in with the likes of Howard Eskin and Jody McDonald who think that Sam Hinkie is a fraud. Five months back, I wrote about him being a Ponzi-Scheme artist.
By the way, Howard and Jody, on sports-talk, you’re now being referred to as “The Old-Heads” because you don’t buy into Sam Hinkie’s hyperbole and balderdash.
I’m guessing that “Old-Heads” is synonymous with wanting to win and not wanting to be a laughingstock loser. So that definitely makes me an “Old-Head” as well – and proud of it.
Personally, I would’ve never drafted Joel Embiid – nor would I have ever traded for an injured Nerlens Noel. But Sam Hinkie did both.
As it worked out, Noel’s injury healed. Which gives Sam Hinkie a 50% winning percentage when it comes to acquiring injured athletes.
That’s a tiny sample, but if that 50% winning percentage applies to injured football players as well, the upcoming season doesn’t bode well for Chip Kelly and the Eagles.
Barry Bowe is the author of:
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