Joel Embiid’s story is one for the ages. He didn’t even get into competitive basketball until he was a teenager, and now he’s one of the NBA’s highest-paid players and the Most Valuable Player of the 2022-23 season.
But Embiid didn’t always have it easy. He struggled to find his footing earlier in his career, constantly dealing with criticism for his never-ending injury woes and his easy-going character.
However, Embiid had been dealing with something no one could even imagine. In fact, the Philadelphia 76ers star almost retired shortly after his little brother passed away, which happened right after the NBA Draft.
Joel Embiid Considered Retirement After A Family Tragedy
(Transcript via The Players’ Tribune)
“I actually don’t know how many people know this, but right after I got drafted, back in 2014, I thought about walking away from the game. I’m not exaggerating at all. I seriously considered retiring from the NBA before I’d even played one game.
It actually had nothing to do with injuries. Your body, it heals. It always heals. All that pain is just temporary. Your heart, though? Man—that’s different. It’s a lot more complicated.
When you talk about my life, you have to talk about my brother Arthur. There’s no telling my story without him.
(…)
I was only able to go back home for a few weeks for his funeral. When I came back to Philly, I kept rehabbing, trying to get better, but I was in a really bad place. With Arthur gone, I felt like I had lost my purpose in life. I really just wanted to quit the game and go back home to Cameroon to be with my family. And, you know, it’s not like a movie where someone sat me down and had some conversation with me, or I picked up a basketball and all of a sudden everything was O.K.
I really had to look inside myself to find that joy again. Every single morning, when I woke up, I would tell myself that I had a choice. I could give up, or I could keep trying to take another step forward. I really had to remind myself why I loved the game in the first place.
So I just pushed on. A lot of days, it sucked. On a lot of days, I just wanted to get on a flight back home. I wanted to quit. But I just kept putting in the work every day for two years to try to get healthy, to try to get better, to try to take one step onto an NBA court. I felt like if I did that, then my brother would be really proud of me.”
Fortunately, Embiid found the strength to just keep pushing and finding a purpose in life again. We cannot imagine the pain he had to go through to find that kind of piece and mental strength. This is why we should be more empathetic before rushing to judge players.