Philadelphia Sports: Top 10 athletes from last decade (2010-19)

No. 7: Joel Embiid

The 76ers’ supposed 7-footer has just about everything going for him as a dominant force in the NBA. And while Joel Embiid might be a ticking time bomb due to health scares, there is no doubting that he is a Hall of Fame talent if he can just manage a long enough career.

All that being said, Embiid incurs a penalty in these rankings since he’s only in his fourth season and hasn’t even played in 200 NBA games yet. Again, these ratings are based on results, and his body of work simply isn’t large enough at this time.

But I’d give Embiid a greater than 50 percent chance of landing on this list for the next decade of Philadelphia sports, with those pesky health issues once again being the only thing that could keep him off of it. Heck, even if he only has three more “very good to great” seasons still left in him, all will be forgiven if he can help to bring an elusive NBA title back to Philadelphia for the first time since 1983.

We all know Embiid’s story, and how we had to wait two full seasons for him to finally make his debut. It was right to wonder if he’d ever even see the court, let alone become the player that he has.

But Embiid turned out to be well worth the wait. The only thing left is for him to take the 76ers to the top of the league, a place where they haven’t been in far too long.