Before the Sixers Could Slay Demons, Joel Embiid Had to Learn to Trust

It was a late Friday night in December that Joel Embiid decided to let the world in.

After a roller coaster start to his 2025-26 season, Embiid began to look more like the offensive force he had been prior to a meniscus injury that derailed his 2024-25 sesaon and led many to question how much time he had left near the peak of his powers.

In his previous game, a very close home loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, Embiid shot 4-for-21.

He's been around too long to celebrate 39 points against the lowly Indiana Pacers,

"You got to stay balanced. Just made shots today," Embiid told reporters that night.

In the moment, it felt like a sign of wisdom.

Now, as Embiid prepares for a second-round clash with the New York Knicks after leading the Sixers to a stunning 3-1 series comeback win over the blood-rival Boston Celtics, it feels more like those words were a sign of trust.

Trust that there would be great moments. Trust that there would be bad moments. Trust that it would all be OK.

As ESPN's Dotun Akintoye so brilliantly articulated, Embiid spent the formative years of his basketball life trusting himself and only himself.

It is likely why, outside of some roster failures around him and a co-star or two who shrunk in every consequential playoff moment, Embiid consistently came up short in the biggest postseason games of his career.

He had to learn to trust.

Trust the medical staff to tell him 'no' when he wanted to say 'yes'. Trust that building real relationships with his teammates could manifest in excellence in the biggest moments of the Sixers' season.

"That helps a lot. Having that stability off the court where you look at the guy next to you, you want to always joke around, talk to them and hang out and being on the road and just chill. That goes a long way. I love all these guys in this locker room and that helps me a lot," Embiid said that night in December.

Embiid has never invested in a teammate the way he has in Tyrese Maxey. That trust helped Maxey leap from supporting cast to budding star, from budding star to All-Star starter and a likely All-NBA nod.

That trust, planted over several years, culminated in Maxey breaking a one-minute-and-49-second scoreless stretch with a pair of layups that effectively put the game on ice for the Sixers.

Maxey is the one who broke through first. But Embiid has learned that to trust teammates is to empower them. It wasn't until he learned that that the Sixers finally broke through, winning a meaningful playoff series with the big man as the fulcrum of the offense:

With the qualifier that there were a handful of DHOs that counted as assists and some pretty simple kick-outs when Boston funneled the ball to certain players, Embiid's passing reads and execution were very, very good in Games 6-7. pic.twitter.com/BSO910dAFZ
— Austin Krell (@NBAKrell) May 3, 2026

Embiid had to learn to trust in the doctor who was going to go back into his knee after a disastrous 2024-25 season. Trust in the rehabilitation process that followed.

Trust in his body, something that has evolved by orders of magnitude from Philadelphia's season-opening win against the Celtics in TD Garden in late October to now.

Perhaps as important as any of it was the trust in himself, that he could do what many, many people doubted he could.

"That's up for those people that don't think I can do it. I can't change their mind and opinion. Feels good. Obviously, playing like that, I feel like I can do it," Embiid said that night.

The Sixers have only advanced to the second round.

But in doing so, they won a war of a Game 7 on the road, beating the Celtics in their building three times in one week.

The world did not think they could do that. Skeptics doubted that Embiid could lead that given his style of play and history of injuries. Critics doubted Embiid's desire to win over chasing personal accolades.

Perhaps those critics had valid arguments in the not-too-distant past, when Embiid would stay on the court long after games had been decided to rack up scores.

Those arguments went up in smoke when Embiid, clearly battling pain in both knees, dove out of bounds to chase a long would-be offensive rebound in the final minute of regulation on Saturday night.

A vastly different challenge begins on Monday.

The New York Knicks do not have shot creation on the wings that the Celtics had for six games. OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges are quite good. They are not in the same stratosphere as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

48.1% of Boston's shots were 3s in that seven-game series, per Cleaning The Glass (CTG). That was up from 43.8% in the regular season. But still indicative of Boston's identity.

Only 33.3% of New York's shots were 3s in their first-round series with the Hawks, per CTG. That was down from 39.8% in the regular season.

The Celtics did not have a point guard to orchestrate the offense like the Knicks will, but the Sixers will be able to go at Jalen Brunson just as much as he'll be able to inflict pain on them.

V.J. Edgecombe spent much of his first playoff series guarding Tatum, Brown and White. Brunson is smaller in height but strong in frame. It will be a different challenge, but a challenge nonetheless. The last time these two teams met in the playoffs, the Sixers did not have an Edgecombe or a Paul George to guard at the point of attack.

But New York has rebounded 31.1% of its own misses through six playoff games, per CTG. Boston's offensive rebounding rate was 30.4%.

The Sixers will have to be better on the glass.

Embiid spent his first four games back from an appendectomy matching up with Neemias Queta, Nikola Vucevic and Luka Garza. Karl-Anthony Towns is perhaps the best stretch big man in the NBA. He will make Embiid guard in space instead of sitting in drop coverage. Mitchell Robinson can guard in space and at the rim. It will be a much more taxing job for the Sixers' staff of centers.

It all starts on Monday night. There is only one way forward for Philadelphia.

And it starts with Embiid continuing to trust himself, his body and his teammates.

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