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Joel Embiid Considered Quitting The NBA Early In His Career

From 1991-1998, one NBA team not led by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen was crowned champions. That team was the Houston Rockets led by revolutionizing center, Hakeem Olajuwon and his “Dream Shake.” Olajuwon was one of the most dominant players of the 1990’s and proved it winning back-to-back titles in 1994 and 1995.

Fast forward, say, 23 years later. A cocky, flamboyant center has set sail to revive his defeated franchise. Joel Embiid, and his partner in crime, Ben Simmons, are reviving the Philadelphia 76ers. Comparing Embiid’s style (not greatness) of play to Olajuwon’s, one which includes impressive post moves, mid-range jumpers, and tenacious blocked shots is respectable.

Dominating headlines with his impressive play and hysterically entertaining his social media audience on a nightly basis, everyone is on the Embiid train.

But, Embiid now revealed that all of this almost never happened.

His career was off to a very tough start. Embiid was forced to miss his entire rookie season with a broken foot, before finding out that he was going to need a second surgery. To make things infinitely worse, his brother died. At that point, Joel Embiid was close to giving up his basketball dream to head back home to Cameroon.

“After my first year, when I found out that I needed a second surgery. And that was at the time that my brother had just died too. So to me, in my head, I was like, ‘What am I even doing here?’ “

Joel Embiid legit considered quitting the NBA early in his career. pic.twitter.com/f0kFB3qBf8

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) December 6, 2018

Luckily, Embiid pulled through, left these troublesome years behind him, and now is one of the best players in the NBA.