Joel Embiid and the 76ers can't catch a break. Is the franchise cursed?

Ben RohrbachFri, April 10, 2026 at 5:43 PM UTC

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Each week during the 2025-26 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into some of the league’s biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.

Last week: There is an easy MVP case for Victor Wembanyama

Fact or Fiction: The 76ers are cursed

Ever since The Process, the Philadelphia 76ers and success have been star-crossed.

The Process was a years-long attempt to rebuild through the draft. Under then-general manager Sam Hinkie, the Sixers intentionally fielded inferior lineups in an effort to lose games. If that sounds familiar, it’s because that strategy has been employed — to lesser degrees — all over the NBA. The Oklahoma City Thunder built a championship from it.

It worked, somewhat, for the Sixers, too. They received top-three picks in four straight drafts, including one who became MVP of the league. This is the foundation of a team that, most anywhere else, would perennially win 50-plus games and compete for titles.

Joel Embiid is sidelined yet again, this time after undergoing surgery for an appendicitis. (Photo by Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images) (Isaiah Vazquez via Getty Images)

Not in Philadelphia, where they appear to be cursed. The 76ers’ MVP, Joel Embiid, is the most unfortunate player in the history of the game. Only fellow Process Era draftees, including Ben Simmons, might be able to challenge Embiid for that title.

I’m not just talking about the foot and knee injuries that have threatened Embiid’s career. Those things happen, every so often, for myriad reasons, to 7-foot, 280-pound athletic marvels. Count Bill Walton to Greg Oden among bigs whose careers have been cut short.

But Embiid has also been stricken by a series of ill-fated incidents, all either just before the playoffs or during them. He twice fractured an orbital bone — in March 2018 and April 2022. It was gastroenteritis in 2019 and Bell’s palsy in 2024. And on Thursday news broke that Embiid required an appendectomy, just as Philly had gotten healthy for the playoffs.

The ill-fated nature of the 76ers goes well beyond Embiid. The NBA essentially stepped in to end Hinkie’s Process and replace him in Philly’s front office with Bryan Colangelo, who was fired in 2018, it seems, in part, for defending his shirt-collar sizes on a burner account.

Almost as weird was when James Harden called current Sixers executive Daryl Morey “a liar” during a public appearance in China, essentially demanding a 2023 trade from Philly.

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Look no further than the 76ers’ draft history from 2015-18 for more evidence of a curse.

2015: The 76ers drafted Jahlil Okafor with the No. 3 overall pick, one spot ahead of Kristaps Porziņģis. Within the first three months of his rookie season, Okafor was cited for driving 108 mph on the Ben Franklin Bridge, was denied service at a bar for allegedly using a fake ID and was involved in multiple off-court altercations, including two that appeared on TMZ. It took two years before he was traded for Trevor Booker, who was promptly waived.

2016: The 76ers drafted Ben Simmons with the No. 1 overall pick, ahead of both Brandon Ingram and Jaylen Brown. Simmons developed into an All-NBA and All-Defensive player, helping them to a series of 50-win seasons, only to suffer what can only be described as a mental breakdown at the end of Game 7 of the 2021 Eastern Conference semifinals. His career never recovered, and today, at only 29 years old, he has gone fishing.

2017: The 76ers drafted Markelle Fultz with the No. 1 overall pick, ahead of Lonzo Ball and Jayson Tatum. It remains a mystery whether Fultz just forgot how to shoot or suffered a shoulder injury that impacted his ability to shoot, but either way he could not shoot, and that was a problem for a prospect whose entire game was predicated on scoring. Come to think of it, the Sixers drafted consecutive No. 1 overall picks who were afraid to shoot.

2018: The 76ers drafted Mikal Bridges, one spot ahead of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, only to trade Bridges, whose mother worked for the team, for the draft rights to Zhaire Smith. Before he ever wore a Sixers uniform, Smith 1) broke his foot and 2) suffered a severe allergic reaction from sesame seeds in a Thai Chicken dish at the team’s practice facility. He was hospitalized, losing 60 pounds in the ordeal, and he was never the same player.

The bizarre backstory of these Sixers does not end there. After all, this is a team that released confetti on its fans, only to lose that playoff game — and the series — to the rival Boston Celtics. It took Kawhi Leonard’s miracle shot to end their best chance at a ring in Game 7 of another second-round set. The Philadelphia 76ers can’t catch a break, man.

Or they catch too many. Damn you, appendicitis.

Determination: Fiction. Of course the 76ers are not cursed. Curses aren’t real … right? Curses did not sign Simmons and Tobias Harris to extensions instead of Jimmy Butler.

How we really know the Sixers aren’t cursed: The pick they secured in return for Fultz became Tyrese Maxey, a No. 21 overall selection who blossomed into an All-NBA guy. And last year’s No. 3 pick, VJ Edgecombe, looks as though he could become an All-NBA partner to Maxey in Philadelphia’s backcourt. They are 20 and 25 years old, respectively.

Now, if only Embiid and Paul George — two of the NBA’s worst contracts going — could stay healthy over the course of an entire playoffs. And if only everyone else on the Sixers can avoid shingles or whatever comes next for the unluckiest franchise in the league.

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Sports”