Philadelphia 76ers: Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins reunite in Cleveland

It’s here, it’s finally here: All-Star weekend, baby.

After waiting a little longer than usual, the best of the best the NBA has to offer has convened in sunny Cleveland, Ohio, to take part in one of the more entertaining exhibition events the sporting world has to offer.

For the fifth season in a row, Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid will be featured prominently in the game, as he’s been named an All-Star starter and will represent Team Kevin Durant in the red and darker red uniforms versus LeBron James and new teammate James Harden – who is out of the game with a hamstring injury – in the blue and gray.

But, in a twist of fate few saw coming, “The Process” isn’t the only member of the 2013-14 Kansas Jayhawks set to suit up for the game. No, after eight years apart, Embiid will take the court alongside Andrew Wiggins once more, in a full-circle moment that will make collegiate fans in Lawrence very, very happy.

Here’s the story of how it happened, Philadelphia 76ers fans.

The 2022 NBA All-Star game is extra special for the Philadelphia 76ers’ center.

Once upon a time, the idea of Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins being named to the same All-Star game was crazy.

The year was 2016, summer to be exact. Wiggins had just followed up a Rookie of the Year win with an improved sophomore season where he averaged 20.7 points, 3.6 rebounds, and a steal in 35.1 minutes of action. Sure, his efficiency numbers were great, as he only shot 45.9 from the field and 30 from beyond the arc, but hey, when you have a nickname like “Maple Jordan” for being a dynamic mid-range scorer, you aren’t exactly expected to be the next Ray Allen.

After watching Kevin Love bolt like Kevin Garnett before him in the pursuit of a championship trophy, the 40-42 improbably secured the first overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft via a trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and in Wiggins, they secured their next franchise player to build around for the future. Despite bottoming out in Wiggins’ rookie season to a 16-66 record under Flip Saunders, the team’s worst mark since 2009-10, the Kansas product helped to slowly push his team back into prominence, with 13 more wins in the standings than the year before.

Surely expectations were a mile high in The Twin Cities, and after wasting the primes of two of the team’s best players of the last 20 years, folks were hyped up on yet another Minnesota revival.

And as for Wiggins’ college teammate, Joel Embiid? Well, no one really knew what to expect from the 7-foot center because he’d yet to take the court. After entering the 2014 draft with not one but two major injuries, Embiid missed the entirety of his first and second seasons in the NBA due to lingering concerns about a fracture in his navicular bone in his right foot. Would Embiid actually play for the Philadelphia 76ers in 2016, or would he go down as the next Andrew Bynum, a supremely talented center who never took the Wells Fargo Center’s court?

Boy, oh boy, how things have changed.

Fast forward to 2022, and the two former teammates have seen their perceptions around the NBA flipped upside down. While Wiggins still averaged more points than his fellow former Jayhawk during the 2016-17 season, the player who quite literally went on to personify “The Process” rapidly developed into one of the best centers and eventually one of the best players in the NBA, period. He’s averaging an association-high 29.6 points per game to go with 11.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.4 blocks, and a steal and has become the NBA’s premier points getter in clutch situations.

And as for Wiggins? Well, he was traded to the Golden State Warriors along with a first-round pick and a second-round pick for Jacob Evans, D’Angelo Russell, and Omari Spellman; need I say more?

Now granted, Wiggins has experienced a bit of a resurgence since taking his talents to The Bay. While his points per game have gone down with each passing season, his efficiency stats have gone up with each passing campaign with the royal blue and yellow, to the point where the soon-to-be-27-year-old has become a legitimate threat from beyond the arc, as his 41.4 shooting percentage on 5.5 attempts clearly shows.

Does Wiggins deserve to be an All-Star? Probably not, his campaign was very much fan-generated and benefited from a healthy dose of a contrarian memeification, but hey, you know what they say; it’s not about how you get to the party but what you do once you’ve arrived. To his credit, Wiggins seems to be enjoying his first All-Star berth and even took some time to hang out with the Embiids, Joel and Arthur, who he clearly remains connected to all of these years later.

Could we one day see the duo share the court together in a more full-time basis? Potentially so, the Sixers were linked to Wiggins at various points over the past season, and while Warriors owner Joe Lacob had to pay $50,000 for voicing his disdain for Ben Simmons, that doesn’t mean the Warriors will be lining up to give the former first overall pick another $147 million contract when his current deal expires at the end of the 2022-23 season.

But frankly, that’s a conversation for another day. No, today Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins take the court for the first time as teammates since March 1st, 2014, long before the duo were drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers and Cleveland Cavaliers, respectively. At various points, this outcome seemed impossible, but after a pair of very different journies through the association we all love, this is where the paths of two former Jayhawks intersected one more.