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Joel Embiid gets disrespected in ESPN's Top 100 rankings: "If he is back and healthy..."
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- Joel Embiid gets disrespected in ESPN's Top 100 rankings: "If he is back and healthy..."
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Just two seasons ago, Joel Embiid was on a clear path to defending his MVP title and winning a third straight scoring crown.
The Philadelphia 76ers superstar was probably playing by all measures the most dominant season ever seen in the league, something confirmed by Player Efficiency Rating (PER).
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In the 2021-22 season, Nikola Jokic broke a 40-year record previously held by Wilt Chamberlain, setting a PER of 32.9. Embiid then shattered that record in the 2023-24 season, when after 39 games his PER stood at 34.1, per StatMuse , while also becoming the first player since Chamberlain to average more points than minutes played.
He was posting career highs in points, assists, steals, three-point shooting and free-throw percentage.
ESPN disrespected Embiid in their Top 100 rankings
At that moment, it looked like there really wasn't a better player in the world than him. But then came new knee problems and since then, he's played only 25 games to this day.
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Ahead of the upcoming season, ESPN released its Top 100 player rankings, placing Embiid all the way down at 47th place, sparking a major reaction from the media and the fans.
"It is almost impossible to rank Embiid after the former MVP played just 19 games last season. If he is back and healthy, he's obviously a top-10-caliber player, as he was for several seasons prior to 2024-25. But that's a very big if, particularly after how the past 18 months or so have gone in Philly," Tim Bontemps wrote .
Is Embiid past his prime?
While Bontempts is correct in saying it's nearly impossible to rank the seven-time All-Star given the uncertainty around his physical condition, the fact is that in those 19 games last season, while clearly not at his best physically, JoJo still averaged 23.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists.
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For most players in the league, those numbers would represent a career year, but not for someone of Embiid's caliber. In the season when he was on track to repeat as MVP, he put up 34.7 points, 11.0 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.7 blocks on 52.9 percent shooting.
That's how dominant prime Embiid was.
This isn't the first list suggesting Embiid is well past his prime and that injuries have taken too heavy a toll. The Athletic ranked Embiid as the third-best center , behind Jokic and Victor Wembanyama .
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"No offense to any other great big men in this league, but we should all be able to agree that Jokic is in his own tier," Zach Harper said . "Sorry, Sixers fans, but Big Honey is by himself here. After that, I feel very confident putting all my chips in with Wemby as the second-best big man in the league."
"Mostly, it's because I don't believe Embiid can sustain health enough to be the clear-cut number two and Wembanyama is going to get even better. Davis might have a chance of being higher if he'd stop fussing about playing center," Harper stated.
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Motivation shouldn't be lacking
Of course, after 11 years in the league, Embiid deserves more respect. While Jokic clearly holds the top spot, putting so many others ahead of Embiid on both lists is at the very least questionable.
Photos from training camp for the upcoming season show that Embiid has slimmed down significantly. He also treated his sore knee with an arthroscopic surgery, all with the goal of reducing stress on it and playing several more elite seasons before the end of his career.
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Motivation shouldn't be lacking, especially after all these rankings that practically see him as a veteran past his prime, instead of the player who just two seasons ago was on track to put together perhaps the best individual season in the history of the Association.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 26, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
