{"id":221914,"date":"2025-08-09T21:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T21:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/221914\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T21:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T21:25:14","slug":"ex-celtics-stars-bold-joel-embiid-prediction-puts-nbas-top-5-list-in-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/221914\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Celtics Star\u2019s Bold Joel Embiid Prediction Puts NBA\u2019s Top 5 List in Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

The question of what a healthy Joel Embiid would be like has now started to take shape as what the future looks like for injury-prone 7x All-Star. Among the ones making predictions was a former Boston Celtics star, who not only predicted the retirement time for Embiid but also made a bold claim against his chances at the biggest honor in the league. The prediction made could easily raise questions against the 2x Scoring champion\u2019s place on one of the NBA\u2019s top 5 lists.<\/p>\n

As most fans would recall, Joel Embiid\u2019s NBA career has been plagued by injuries. Whether it be the 2-season delay in his NBA debut itself or his more recent knee issues, letting him play just 19 games in the last season. The issues, though, stem from his torn left meniscus from the prior year; there\u2019s no denying that Embiid\u2019s health issues have been consistent. Case in point: the 7x All-Star has missed close to 300 regular-season games (excluding his two completely missed NBA seasons). Now, there\u2019s no denying that Embiid has been impressive in the limited time he has been in the league. But that did not stop ex-Celtics star Jeff Teague from making a bold claim against Embiid\u2019s Hall of Fame chances.<\/p>\n

The conversation around JoJo started with Teague predicting 7x All-Star\u2019s retirement time. \u201cJust get your chicken, brother. He done after these three years for sure,\u201d Teague said on the Club 520\u00a0podcast<\/a>. A bold prediction, for sure, but then came even a more shocking one against Joel Embiid\u2019s Hall of Fame chances despite his 7 All-Star appearances, 2 scoring titles, an MVP title, and other accolades.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat boy ain\u2019t never played 70 games\u2026 He might not make the Hall of Fame, bro\u2026\u201d Teague said. And let\u2019s not forget NBACentral\u2019s recent tweet that sourced Brett Siegel\u2019s ClutchPoints report. \u201cEmbiid has struggled getting back on the court\u2026 things are \u2018bad\u2026 (Embiid will) likely miss the start of training camp\u201d. As per the reports, some execs are even claiming<\/a> that the Philadelphia 76ers \u201cregret their decision to extend\u201d JoJo\u2019s $193M deal. No wonder, there was some extent of agreement with Jeff Teague\u2019s chain of thought on the Club 520 podcast.\u00a0\u00a0Now, this assumption could easily raise questions about Joel Embiid\u2019s place on the list of the top 5 highest-paid players.<\/p>\n

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HoopsHype recently put together a list of players with the All-time most guaranteed salary. With LeBron James and Stephen Curry<\/a> securing the top two spots, respectively, Embiid stood 5th on the list. The top 5 spots being filled with HOF worthy talent, Embiid\u2019s place could be a subject of question if his chances at the top NBA honor are already uncertain.<\/p>\n

Why Joel Embiid in the Hall of Fame makes sense.<\/p>\n

When Jeff Teague questioned Joel Embiid\u2019<\/a>s Hall of Fame chances, it sparked a debate that\u2019s worth unpacking. After all, history has shown us that not every Hall of Famer needed a championship or even an MVP award to make it in. Think about Pete Maravich\u2014his name still shines in the Hall purely because of his individual brilliance.<\/p>\n

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By that same measure, Embiid\u2019s sheer statistical dominance and the accolades he\u2019s already collected could easily earn him a spot, even if injuries were to cut his career short. But here\u2019s where Teague\u2019s point hits home. You can almost feel the frustration radiating from 76ers<\/a> fans. They\u2019ve seen the franchise bend over backward for Embiid\u2014giving him the roster tweaks, the support, and the pieces he\u2019s wanted. Yet, that elusive championship banner still isn\u2019t hanging in Philly.<\/p>\n

If that continues, the backlash could sting more than any injury ever has. And really, nobody wants to see another what-if story. If that label sticks to Embiid, it could cast a shadow over everything he\u2019s accomplished so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The question of what a healthy Joel Embiid would be like has now started to take shape as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,6,3512],"class_list":{"0":"post-221914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-bostonceltics","12":"tag-celtics","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-npstrans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115000922868459626","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}