The Philadelphia 76ers have lost nine games in a row and are two and a half games back of the Chicago Bulls for a spot in the National Basketball Association play-in tournament. This week Philadelphia received some significant and unfortunate news as it was reported that 2023 most valuable player Joel Embiid of Yaounde, Cameroon and shooting guard Eric Gordon of Indianapolis, Indiana would both be out for the remainder of the regular season with various injuries. Embiid is out with a left knee injury and Gordon is out with wrist surgery.
Embiid, the two-time scoring champion (33.1 points per game in 2022-23, and 30.6 points per game in 2021-22), and seven time All-Star, only played 19 games for the 76ers this season. He averaged 23.8 points per game, 8.2 rebounds per game, and 4.5 assists per game. Embiid was also not an All-Star for the first time since 2016-17. This was Embiid’s first full NBA season, as he missed his first two NBA seasons due to a foot injury. When Embiid, a center, did play his first season in Philadelphia in 2016-17, he averaged 20.2 points per game, and was third in NBA rookie of the year voting. He was only behind Malcolm Brogdon of the Milwaukee Bucks and Dario Saric of the 76ers.
Gordon meanwhile, was only averaging 6.8 points per game this season. His claim to fame was being the sixth man of the year award winner while with the Houston Rockets in 2016-17. This is the first time in his career, a career that has lasted 17 seasons, that he is not averaging in the double digits when it comes to points per game.
