Joel Embiid Almost Starred in 'Uncut Gems' with Adam Sandler

This year, Philadelphia 76ers superstar center Joel Embiid almost expanded his talents. As the big man is recognized as a star on the basketball court, he was quite close to becoming a movie star this year as well. Unfortunately, a scheduling conflict between the movie shoot and the Sixers prevented it from happening.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer's Nick Vadala, Embiid was the top candidate to co-star a role alongside Adam Sandler in a Safdie Brothers film titled 'Uncut Gems.'

A couple of months back, the official trailer for the movie was released and sent the internet into a frenzy. Considering that Adam Sandler typically stars in comedy movies with very little seriousness in it, an intense trailer for a drama flick shocked those who saw it.

However, it wasn't all about Sandler. Since the movie revolves around sports gambling and the NBA, the Safdie brothers have included some notable figures in the sports world as well. The two who stood out happened to be New York radio host Mike Francesca, and retired NBA great, Kevin Garnett.

For a while now, we knew Garnett was a big part of the film. What we didn't know though, was that Garnett reportedly wasn't the first choice. Apparently, it was supposed to be Joel Embiid starring in the role.

The Safdie brothers recently revealed this 'gem' when discussing the movie on the NBA Desktop podcast, courtesy of The Ringer. They had Embiid in mind, and the Sixers' center was ready to play the role for a while. Unfortunately, the shooting schedule prevented that from happening since Embiid does have to play basketball first.

It's disappointing considering that Embiid would've made his big-screen debut so early on in his young career. On the flip side though, at least there won't be any negative discussions regarding Embiid's acting skillset.

That's not to say he would've done a bad job, but there's no guarantee he would've done great either. A silver lining there for Sixers fans, I suppose.