Joel Embiid wasn’t lying when he said he was concerned about playing during a pandemic.
The Philadelphia 76ers star center was spotted on Thursday wearing a hazmat suit, a face mask, and gloves as he and the rest of the 76ers got set to board a plane and make their way to Orlando, Florida.
During a conference call earlier this week, Embiid said that he “hated” the idea of resuming the 2019-20 season inside of a bubble.
“I hated the idea,” Embiid said. “I feel like with everything that has been going on, it’s unfortunate what’s been going on in the world. Obviously people look at it in a different way. There might be some other reasons behind everything going on. To me, that part never mattered. To me, all I want is to stay healthy and stay safe, keep the people around me safe. I want to make sure I’m able to live for a long time and not have any sort of consequences in the future from this if I were to be in a situation where I was getting the virus.”
The Sixers star is still planning to giving all that he has when his team takes the floor.
“Unfortunately, I’m not a big fan of the idea. But then again, I’m going to do my job,” Embiid added. “I’m not going to let the city down. I’m going to represent my city — that’s what I’ve always done — my family, my teammates. The mindset doesn’t change. It doesn’t matter the fact that I don’t like that idea and I still don’t believe in it. I don’t think it’s going to be safe enough.”