Joel Embiid breaks silence, speaks to the media for the first time after knee surgery: 'I want to be on the floor as much as possible'

Philadelphia 76ers' superstar, Joel Embiid, talked to the media this Thursday for the first time in the last month. The center injured his knee against the Golden State Warriors on January 30th and has not made any public appearences since. Embiid is hoping to return at some point of the regular season last stretch of games.

Joel Embiid answered questions regarding to his recovery: "That's the plan (about a possible return at the end of the season). Obviously everything has to go right, as far as getting healthy and being as close as I'm supposed to be. But yeah, that's the plan. So it all depends on how the feels, and if it fees great then that's good. If it doesn't feel right...then you got to keep going."

When one of the journalist asked about why coming back now and not choosing to recover and return next year, Embiid stated: "Why? The same reason why I was pushing the last couple of games, I just love playing basketball. I want to be on the floor as much as possible, I only have about 20 years to do this so any chances I get, I want to be on the floor."

"It doesn't really matter where we are (regarding the standings), I just wanna play as much as we can and try to help us," declared the future team USA center.

Embiid was having yet another monster season. Last year he finally won the well deserved MVP award, after being in the mix of candidates for three years. This season he was on his way to win the award back-to-back, averaging 35.3 points, 11.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game.

"I was on a roll and I felt like I wasn't even close to where I wanted to be, I felt like there was still another level that I could go to. It was very dissapointing."

"My mindset is playing basketball, playing as much as I can," he said. "For two months, I was not at 100%, I was not even close to it. And I just felt the need of giving my all to the team and just wanting to win. Because I know I can, you know, I can add that to this basketball team. So there's nothing different I would've done," concluded Joel, in response of if he was influenced by the 65-game rule to play without being healthy.