What reason does Joel Embiid have to believe in the Philadelphia 76ers?

Joel Embiid's journey to NBA superstar is practically unfathomable. He first played basketball at the age of 15 in 2010, when countryman Luc Mbah a Moute discovered him at a camp in Cameroon. Embiid became the No. 3 overall pick in the NBA Draft inside of four years and the league's Most Valuable Player by age 29.

Unfortunately, Embiid's NBA journey on the Philadelphia 76ers has been every bit as incomprehensible. From The Process to James Harden's active trade request, the Sixers have given Embiid few reasons to believe they can construct a championship roster around him and every reason to think more chaos lurks around the corner. Yet, he remains committed to the only franchise he has ever known. At least for now.

Consider Embiid's NBA life. He spent his first two years in Philadelphia on injured reserve. Meanwhile, general manager Sam Hinkie traded everyone from Thaddeus Young to Michael Carter-Williams for spare parts and draft capital, fielding one of the worst teams in league history the season before Embiid's debut. The reward was four straight top-three draft picks: Embiid, Jahlil Okafor, Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz.

Think about the others for a moment.

In Okafor's first month with the Sixers, he was cited for driving 63 mph over the speed limit and subject to three police inquiries into punches allegedly thrown at hecklers in both Philadelphia and Boston, one of whom reportedly said, "The 76ers suck and you guys are all losers. You'll never win a game." Okafor never made it to the final year of his rookie contract with the Sixers and ripped the coaching staff on his way out the door.

Simmons might use the wrong hand when he opts to shoot anywhere outside the restricted area, which is not often. He transformed into an All-NBA and All-Defensive talent anyway, before melting down in the final minutes of Game 7 in the 2021 Eastern Conference semifinals. He subsequently requested a trade with four years left on a maximum contract and held out until the Sixers met his demand. He has barely played since.

Fultz either "completely forgot how to shoot," could not lift his arms over his head or both. Or neither. We are still not entirely sure what happened to Fultz during his time in Philadelphia, but it lasted just 33 games.

Somehow none of their stories is the strangest of Embiid's tenure.

The Sixers forced Hinkie's resignation, reportedly at the behest of the league's owners, before Embiid played a single game. They replaced him with Bryan Colangelo, who lasted two years before The Ringer uncovered a Twitter account tied to his wife that criticized members of the Sixers, including Embiid, and shared other "sensitive, non-public, club-related information." Colangelo resigned in June 2018.

The Sixers briefly promoted head coach Brett Brown to GM in time for the 2018 draft. He had no prior front-office experience and promptly picked Philadelphia native Mikal Bridges 10th overall — not bad, even if Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went 11th — only to trade him in favor of Zhaire Smith. Smith lasted 13 games for the Sixers in part due to a mysterious life-threatening allergic reaction to chicken he ate at the team facility.

Two years removed from his playing career, Elton Brand replaced Brown as Philadelphia's lead decision-maker. Tasked with launching a 52-win team into true championship contention, Brand traded two first-round draft picks, three second-rounders and a slew of players for the expiring contracts of Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris, who helped the Sixers reach Game 7 of the 2019 conference semifinals. Philadelphia effectively paid Harris and Simmons max money instead of Butler in a crippling decision that still lingers.

Within a year, the Sixers hired Daryl Morey to undo everything Brand had just done. Morey joined the Sixers with a reputation as one of the league's smartest GMs, and his big swing to build around Embiid was chasing the player who earned him that reputation on the Houston Rockets. Only, Harden carried his own reputation from Houston to Philadelphia as a hard-partying, increasingly injured and often flaky one-time MVP who quit on his two previous teams. Morey's biggest free-agent acquisition is another old friend, P.J. Tucker, who received a $33 million contract last summer that will see him through his 40th birthday.

This is what the Sixers have to show in nine years since drafting Embiid — Games 7 of the East semis in 2019, 2021 and 2023, all losses with Butler, Simmons and Harden as his respective co-star, all under different executives. There can be no doubt that Embiid's health, conditioning and passivity contributed to each of the three defeats, but between the end of the 2019 playoffs and the dawn of the February 2021 trade deadline, the franchise traded Butler for Josh Richardson, dealt Richardson and a second-round draft pick for Seth Curry, and then packaged Curry with Simmons and two first-round picks for Harden.

Now, Harden wants out of Philadelphia, too. Except, the Los Angeles Clippers appear to be the only team interested, and they are reportedly reluctant to trade anything of consequence for a soon-to-be 34-year-old who is seeking a fourth team in three years, missed a third of his games in that span and is experiencing a decline in production and efficiency, especially in the playoffs. The Sixers are regressing in Embiid's prime.

Thank goodness for Morey's 2020 draft selection of Tyrese Maxey with the No. 21 overall pick. The 22-year-old guard is Philadelphia's only consequential asset beyond a 2029 first-round draft pick and Embiid. The list of teams that would top any offer the Sixers can make for the next available star is long, even if Morey manages to grab a couple more first-round picks in flipping Harden for an underwhelming player package.

Maxey is waiting on an extension the Sixers likely will not offer before he hits restricted free agency in 2024, since Morey has designs on creating salary-cap space if he cannot return equal value for Harden. Now, name the Sixers' most notable free-agent signings this century: Brand in 2008, post-Achilles rupture, a 33-year-old J.J. Redick in 2017 and a 33-year-old Al Horford in 2019. What evidence does Embiid have that the Sixers will do anything but bungle the final three years of the max contract extension he signed in 2021?

This is why Embiid made headlines when he publicly said last week, "I just wanna win a championship, whatever it takes. I don’t know where that’s gonna be, whether that’s in Philly or anywhere else."

This is why the clock ticks on another trade request. The Sixers have left Embiid with little other choice.