A proud Joel Embiid leads the Sixers to an accomplishment decades in the making

BOSTON — Joel Embiid took a glance at his watch. It was a few minutes after midnight.Dressed in a black T-shirt, adorned with black sunglasses and an omnipresent smile, the Philadelphia 76ers star big man basked in the glow of the first Game 7 victory of his career. It was over two hours since his Sixers defeated the Boston Celtics 109-100 before a stunned TD Garden crowd. His head coach, Nick Nurse, had given him and the rest of the Philadelphia roster one objective:Take the rest of the night to celebrate. Then on Sunday, the focus needed to turn to the Sixers’ second-round opponent, the New York Knicks.Advertisement