It was mid-December, two days before the NBA’s unofficial start of trade season, when Joel Embiid slunk into a chair at the Sixers’ practice facility and told Yahoo Sports he believed Philadelphia fans wanted to trade him.
The league’s Most Valuable Player has always stared right through the fourth wall of this television show, recognizing the face of a franchise encapsulates far more than two-way brilliance that can earn the game’s greatest accolades. He is an entertainer as much as a competitor. And with that, Embiid has always understood the central plot line of this drama is not just competing for a championship but winning the damn thing — at least once.