The longest stable stretch of Joel Embiid's life as a basketball player has been the stretch when he could not play basketball. It is easy to forget this because so many people - the 76ers, their fans, anyone curious about what Embiid could and would do once he was healthy - have been waiting so long to see him play. That wait, that preoccupation with the skills that Embiid might display on the court, has overshadowed everything else about him, including and especially how little basketball he has played in his life, how close he came to not being a Sixer at all, and how his past might affect his future.
Sielski: Embiid has grown in more ways than one
