PHILADELPHIA — The big fella wasn’t ready to leave just yet. The game was over, and so were the on-court interviews, and the rest of the team was back in the locker room waiting for Joel Embiid to return from the latest line on his MVP resume.
But the stands at the Wells Fargo Center were still pulsing with a few thousand fans who didn’t want to leave yet, and, truth be told, the feeling was mutual. Walking around the court with a signed souvenir basketball suction-cupped to his gargantuan hand, Embiid scanned the seating bowl with a series of long, performative glances. He looked to his left, and then to his right, and then he wheeled around and looked behind the basket.
With each turn, he heard a different section of the arena rumble further to life, the mere direction of his face causing the energy in front of it to swell, like a compass in reverse. Embiid raised his arm as if to throw, then lowered it, then raised it again.
