Joel Embiid, the star of the Philadelphia 76ers, said this Monday that He has lost between “25 and 30 pounds” this summer (from 11.3 to 13.6 kilos) and stressed that his priority for this new NBA season is to be healthy for the ‘playoff’.
“I still want to lose more weight, but it’s a process,” stated the center at Media Day, the day open to the media in the NBA before starting the new campaign. “As soon as we lost last year (in the first round against the New York Knicks), I texted Daryl Morey (Sixers president of basketball operations) and said, ‘We have to do what it takes to make sure he’s healthy.’ in the postseason,'” he added.
MVP of the 2022-2023 season, Embiid, 30 years old and who has just won Olympic gold with the American team, has not yet played in any conference finals in the NBA and injuries have regularly been an obstacle in his journey. in the ‘playoff’.
This time The Sixers start the season with good feelingswithout controversy surrounding some of its players (as happened in the past with Ben Simmons and James Harden) and with great additions like Paul George.
“It is extremely important to go into preseason without negativity or noise. Obviously, in the last few years we had a lot of that,” Embiid acknowledged.
The Sixers aspire to be in the positions of honor in the East alongside fearsome rivals like the Boston Celtics or the New York Knicks and for that they have opted for a squad in which names like those of Tyrese Maxey, Caleb Martin, Kyle Lowry, Kelly Oubre Jr., Andre Drummond, Eric Gordon o Guerschon Yabusele.
“Consistency is really all I ask for,” Embiid said.
“I think I’ve mentioned in the past that if you keep changing players every year or every two years, I don’t think that’s going to get you anywhere. If you look at some of the teams that have won, most of their players have been together for a while. So I think for me it’s about having consistency,” he noted.
Finally, Embiid mourned the death this Monday of the legendary Congolese center Dikembe Mutombo.
“It is a sad day, especially for us Africans and really for the whole world because, Beyond what he achieved on the basketball court, I think he was even better off the court.”said the American-Cameroonian. “He was one of those that I admired in terms of having an impact not only on the field but off it. He did a lot of great things for a lot of people. He was a role model for me. It’s a sad day,” he added.
