Joel Embiid’s NBA All-Star starter honor is validation for the 76ers

BOSTON -- T.J. McConnell was miming Joel Embiid’s celebratory arms skyward gesture as the announcement was met with cheers inside the 76ers locker room. Just 63 games into a career that has already spanned three-and-a-half seasons, Embiid was an All-Star starter.

As Embiid made his way to his locker, his coach Brett Brown swooped in for a hug. McConnell came by and offered his own. By NBA standards, the locker room reaction was genuinely touching.

“He’s a really good dude, an amazing teammate, and a really good player,” McConnell said. “Any time one of your brothers gets an accomplishment like that, you’re happy for him.”

An even better celebration took place in the few hours that followed as Embiid and the Sixers put together an impressive 44 minutes before holding onto an 89-80 victory over the Celtics. It was their second win over a top Eastern Conference foe in less than a week. Just like their win over the Raptors on Monday, Embiid was the best player on the floor with 26 points, 16 rebounds, and six assists.

It’s crucial for the 76ers to win games like this. They’ve have had a habit of playing fast and loose with big leads, so to close one out on the road against the Celtics, even without Kyrie Irving, was an important marker in their season.

The victory put them a game over .500 at the midway point of their season and kept them in the hunt for a playoff berth in the East. It was yet another small milestone in a season defined by steady, but incremental progress.

The biggest signifier of legitimacy for the 76ers, however, was the individual honor bestowed on their precocious big man.

“It’s validation,” Embiid said. “It’s bigger than me. It’s validation for the whole organization, especially after what we’ve been through for the past four years. I’m not excited just about myself, I’m excited for the whole city of Philadelphia.”

What they’ve been through the past four years has been one of the strangest stories in basketball. A franchise set up to fail by design was rewarded with a string of phenomenal talents while dealing with a dizzying number of injuries and setbacks. The Process has quickly passed into NBA legend.

No one has personified the last four years more than Embiid, who fell into the Sixers’ lap on draft day in 2014 amid injury concerns, and then missed his first two seasons with various ailments.

In that, he was not alone. Two years after drafting Embiid, top pick Ben Simmons also missed his rookie season with injuries. This year’s top selection, Markelle Fultz, has been limited to just four games.

Yet, as good as Simmons has been, and as much as Fultz may one day provide, the 76ers’ fortunes hang on the fate of their big man. They are 19-13 when he plays and 2-7 when he doesn’t.

Embiid offered us glimpses of the player he can be last season, but that lasted only 31 games before he was shut down once again. The game against Boston marked his 32nd of the season and he passed 1,000 minutes for the first time in his career. Incremental, but steady, progress may be the mantra, but now that comes with All-Star recognition.

“Like someone just gave one of your children a star and put it on his paper,” Brown said. “He’s gone through a lot and to think that somebody that has played (63) games cumulatively, and just for that small sample size is on the All-Star team and starting. His story of perseverance is remarkable and his story, as it reflects the organization and the process that we have all been going through is a wonderful story. I’m just very proud of him.”

Joel Embiid is an All-Star starter. Let the celebration begin.