Joel Embiid targets clean bill of health through to NBA 2024/25 playoffs: "Whatever it takes to make sure that I’m healthy"
Off the back of winning gold with Team USA at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, the basketball star is clear that he wants to stay consistently fit this season.
Basketball
Olympic gold medallist Joel Embiid is more motivated than ever to keep fit ahead of the new NBA season.
The Philadelphia 76ers man has struggled with injuries in recent years, particularly around the time of the play-offs, unable to help inspire his team to an elusive NBA ring.
Embiid is no stranger to success: the NBA’s MVP in 2023, a seven-time NBA All-Star and now an Olympic champion less than a year after declaring he would represent the USA in international basketball.
A decade after debuting in the NBA, the Cameroon-born star will do everything possible to make 2025 another golden year.
Embiid said at the Philadelphia 76ers media day (as per Forbes), "Daryl [Morey, team president] would tell you this: As soon as we lost last year, I texted him and I was like, 'We've got to do whatever it takes to make sure that, in the postseason, I'm healthy’."
“This year, there's no agenda—All-Star, All-NBA, there's none of that. It's whatever it takes to make sure that I get to that point and I'm ready to go.”
Embiid was part of the Team USA squad that won gold in the men’s basketball tournament at Paris 2024, his Olympic debut and thus first Olympic medal.
He continued, "My job this year and what I really want to focus on is empowering these guys. I will do it when I have to. If that means I'm going to have to score some points at some point, then I'm going to do it. But most of the time, I really want to focus on really letting the game come to me.”
Embiid and the 76ers open their NBA regular season campaign on 24 October against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.