The 16 best moments from Joel Embiid and the Year of The Process

Joel Embiid is arguably the most entertaining player in the NBA. He’s not only a phenomenal player, but a generator of Twitter moments not tied to his play on the court. He might even follow it all up with a post on Instagram, which is the cherry on top of an Embiid sundae.

The Sixers’ season came to an end Wednesday night, after they lost in the Eastern Conference Semifinals to the Boston Celtics. We won’t be seeing much more Embiid until October, so for now, let’s celebrate the moments he gave us this season as best we can.

Embiid and Hassan Whiteside got into a Twitter war in October, when some random guy talked smack to Embiid, and Whiteside replied:

The tweet led to a back-and-forth between the two players, which of course led to Instagram shots by Embiid. The location on his photo was “Whiteside” with the caption reading, “My location is EXTREMELY ASS #TheProcess”:

And hey, what’s a social media burn without getting a joke in on Kevin Durant for his burner Twitter account(s)?:

Embiid might be the one NBA player who really doesn’t care about the shots he takes. The NBA is more fun for it.

The Sixers were in Los Angeles to take on the Clippers Nov. 13, a meeting that became chippy after Willie Reed committed a flagrant-1 foul on Embiid.

Embiid wasn’t nice to the Clippers after that. He laughed at Reed while shooting free throws, and mocked him in the huddle:

Then it was Blake Griffin’s turn. Embiid threw down a dunk, making Griffin stop in his tracks to ensure he would not be put on a poster. Embiid then brushed shoulders with Griffin, giving him a cold stare as he went back down the court:

[extremely game show voice] DeAndre Jordan, come on down! Embiid would also score on Jordan, yelling, “You can’t f****ng stop me!”

To make matters worse for Jordan, after he fouled out, Embiid taunted Clippers fans by letting them know Jordan was going home:

As an artist does, Embiid put the finishing touches on the performance by telling reporters after the game that Reed couldn’t guard him:

Embiid wasn’t done in LA — he torched the Lakers the very next day. His 46 points to go along with 15 rebounds, seven assists, and seven blocks is a nice line, but he also did it on 14-of-20 shooting. Only James Harden, Gilbert Arenas, DeMarcus Cousins, Josh Howard, Adrian Dantley, and Willy Burton have ever scored as many points on as few shot attempts, according to Basketball-Reference.

It was also the first time a player scored more than 42 points on fewer than 20 shot attempts while also grabbing 15 rebounds, seven blocks, and seven assists.

Oh, if only we could spin this stat line into something even more meaningful for Sixers fans. Wait, we can:

It goes without saying, but The Process was worth landing a guy like Embiid.

In the fourth game of the season, Embiid cooked Drummond and the Pistons for 30 points on 11-of-15 shooting.

Embiid went on to roast Drummond’s defensive skills — or lack thereof.

“Defensively, he doesn’t play any defense,” Embiid said via The Philadelphia Enquirer. “When we started the game, he was being aggressive and he was talking, too. ... So what I was like [in my mind], ‘You want to do that? I’m going to kick your [butt] then.’ So that’s what I did.”

Fast forward later in the season, and it was much of the same from Embiid.

“No disrespect, but he can’t shoot,” Embiid said, “so I just have to worry about the defensive coverages that we have as a team. And they run a lot of down screens, back-side action, and he’s always the roller so he gets a lot of lobs. So as a team, we’ve gotta make sure that doesn’t happen and we’ve gotta close out on shooters, too.”

Here are Embiid’s three stat lines from his games against the Pistons this season:

Advantage: Embiid.

The Sixers and the Knicks tipped off on Christmas, which would have made us all cringe just a few years ago at how bad of a matchup this would be.

But this time around we were treated to a showdown between Embiid and Kristaps Porzingis. Both got their shots in, but ultimately, Embiid won the individual battle with 25 points and 15 rebounds as the Sixers knocked off the Knicks at MSG, 105-98.

There were some great blocks by Embiid in this particular game, but we’ll highlight this beauty against Kyle O’Quinn:

That’s the basketball equivalent of gifting a lump of coal.

So this isn’t anything that happened on the court, but no matter. Anytime an athlete is on the local news, it’s good. When it’s Embiid, it’s even better:

Go birds, as they say.

A budding rivalry that got buried as the season went on was between Embiid and Russell Westbrook. The Thunder and Sixers first faced each other in December, when Oklahoma City got the best of them in triple overtime. It led to Embiid and Westbrook talking trash at the end of the game.

In the rematch, Embiid dunked on Westbrook, and dunked on him hard:

But once again, Westbrook and the Thunder got the win. And we all got a fierce stare down from Westbrook to Embiid:

You know that Embiid was going to get the last punch in, though. Trash talk and the nuclear levels of shade are what he does best:

Let’s hope we get more of this next season. NBA fans — whether they know it or not at this point — feed off of the wonderful pettiness that players display nowadays.

Part of being a good teammate, or even just a friend in life, is gassing up those around you. It’s not only a sign of support, but a genuine sign that you want somebody else to flourish.

That’s what Embiid did after Robert Covington punched one on Human Brain Philosopher Michael Beasley:

Let’s freeze frame that moment, because it’s a damn good one:

Be supportive of those around you as much as Embiid was for Covington. Life’s better that way.

Along with being an all-star, Embiid participated in the Skills Challenge. While going against Lauri Markkanen, he was accused of being a cheater after he ran to the next phase of the competition without completing a successful chest pass:

Embiid didn’t win so it didn’t matter, but people went after him anyway. He would counter those arguments on Twitter the next day:

Which ... makes a lot of sense. Perhaps he’s ... he’s definitely right:

It’s very Belichickian of Embiid, knowing the rules better than everybody else.

This section would be incredibly long if we tried to highlight every single good thing Embiid did in the NBA All-Star Game. But it would be wrong to not point out this block on Westbrook, especially after the back and forth they had during the season:

But he really did it all during the game. Whether it was a thunderous dunk, a deep triple, a vicious block, or even a simple mid-range jumper, Embiid showed the potential we all know he has when he’s healthy.

Normally, players don’t give much effort during the All-Star Game, but the 2018 contest was different. It received a makeover with handpicked teams by LeBron James and Steph Curry, as well as a $100,000 cash prize for the winners, and a prize of $350,000 for the winning team to give to a charity.

We’re heading towards another Summer Of LeBron with his impending free agency, and Embiid figured he’d get a head start on the recruiting process.

Nobody actually knows what’s going to happen this offseason, but unless you’re the fan of a contender, you couldn’t be that mad if James-to-the-Sixers came to fruition. A Fultz-Embiid-Simmons-James led team sounds nasty, and like exactly the NBA Finals we need against the Warriors.

Curry has been known to let one fly, then make his way down the court before the ball even comes close to falling through the twine.

Embiid showed he can also do that in a game against the Magic in March:

He knew what he was doing, too:

There’s really nothing he can’t do, and he knows it.

Embiid suffered a concussion and orbital bone fracture against the Knicks, after he took a shoulder to the head from Markelle Fultz. He would miss the rest of the regular season, and the first two games of the postseason.

As only Embiid can, he was able to be lighthearted about the situation, especially when he went through surgery and watched his team play without him:

When he came back, he resurfaced with arguably the best mask anybody’s ever worn in the NBA:

When he wore the mask in-game, it also came with a pair of goggles. It was quite the contraption:

It’s not good that he had to wear the mask in the first place, but he looked like a badass with it on.

As you might imagine, playing with a mask on isn’t something that 1) Embiid is used to and 2) is comfortable. In Game 4 against the Heat, he “forgot” the mask on the sideline. Sixers head coach Brett Brown had Covington deliver the mask to him, but he just wore it on the top of his head, and not over his face.

It was fine, because he came up with this demoralizing block on Goran Dragic:

That was pretty dangerous looking on the replay. His face grazed the net, and the top of his head wasn’t all that far from the rim. But hey — it worked out.

After the Sixers knocked the Heat out of the first round of the NBA Playoffs, Philadelphia sports fan Kevin Hart was there to celebrate.

After some dap and a hug, Embiid picked Hart up like he was a four-year-old child:

Embiid made that look incredibly effortless. Hart isn’t a big person at 5’4, 140 pounds, but that was just comically easy. There’s a non-zero chance that Embiid could have thrown him into the rafters of Wells Fargo Arena.

Here lies Aron Baynes:

The 2017-18 edition of Joel Embiid was loads of fun. He’s a perfect mix of what makes the NBA so entertaining today. He’s a unicorn who can dominate on the floor, but he also consistently finds ways to entertain us between games.

Here’s to hoping Embiid continues to stay healthy and has a lavish career. Even if he’s going against your team, it’s hard to not enjoy The Process.