It was a grinding process, but Joel Embiid finally made his highly anticipated comeback to the hardwood.
After a long injury recovery, the superstar big man played for the 2025 preseason finale of the Philadelphia 76ers, spearheading the team’s dominant 126-110 victory over the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves.
On Friday night, Embiid gave 76ers fans a special treat as he showed promising signs that he’s still that dominant center that everybody knows. Numbers simply backed it up as for just 19 minutes of play, he dropped a near triple-double statline of 14 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.
Embiid moved pretty well from dribbling the ball and driving through the basket. And from his assists numbers, he also flashed craftiness in locating his teammates to score.
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With the hit-ahead passes he made throughout the game, Embiid offered an intriguing statement for those who are doubting his place in the league.
“I see all these guys. I’m here to help out. According to a lot of your peers, I’m not even a Top 100 basketball player in this league. So I guess I just got to fit in and see where I can help the team win,” he told the media while smiling in his postgame presser.
It was indeed a tremendous return-to-play performance for Embiid after being limited to just 19 games from the previous 2024-25 season and ultimately undergoing left knee arthroscopic surgery this past April.
Embiid is fully ecstatic that his return is now in the books, as he and the Sixers will now take everything one step at a time in pursuing the upcoming 2025-26 regular season.
"I don’t want to think about the past," Embiid further added. "I’m just in a good space mentally, physically. I’m just happy to touch a basketball and be able to play basketball and do what I love. When you don’t get that, it’s tough, but that’s what I’m most happy about.
“Tonight, that’s all I kept thinking about. I’m on the court playing basketball, doing some good things, helping us win, and that’s really what I was focusing on."
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