"If I had to guess, I would probably never play back-to-backs the rest of my career": Joel Embiid

It's been the same old story. Star center dominates in the regular season. Philly fans get hopes up. Star center is hurt in the playoffs. Sixers are a second round exit.

The life cycle of a Sixers fan.

Well, it seems like Joel Embiid and the Sixers organization are finally fed up along with the rest of us and are absolutely determined to break the cycle. Yesterday, Tim Bontemps reported Embiid as saying:

"If I had to guess, I would probably never play back-to-backs the rest of my career."

Evidently, the Sixers organization plans to only play Embiid during one of two nights when the Sixers are scheduled to play back-to-back nights. This would most likely take Embiid out of the running for individual awards like MVP for the upcoming season, but it seems like he doesn't care. He only wants to win a championship for Philadelphia.

Embiid has traditionally been criticized for his play in the playoffs, but after his 35 ppg performance during last year's playoff series against the Knicks (even while clearly injured), he has changed the opinion of at least one critic.

Today, Stephen A. Smith on First Take cited Embiid's playoff performance against the Knicks and called him "arguably the greatest big man we have ever seen from a talent perspective." He also praised him for his decision to prioritize his health during the upcoming season.

Stephen A. goes on to say, "If Joel Embiid is healthy ... There is no team in the NBA that we can look at going up against a healthy Joel Embiid ... [that] we can definitely say the Philadelphia 76ers cannot beat, even the Boston Celtics."

Music to Sixers fans' ears.

We'll see if it's true come April.