Embiid: 'I didn't really believe in myself' until playing 1st NBA game

To watch Joel Embiid play basketball, or to listen to him talk, it's impossible to imagine the Cameroonian superstar ever doubting himself.

But back before he'd played an NBA game, while he was still working his way back from the recurring foot fractures that cost him his first two seasons, and while his future in the league was still very much in question, things got dire for the prodigious Philadelphia 76ers center.

"My body died," Embiid told reporters Friday, according to Tim Bontemps of the Washington Post.

"At some points, I wanted to quit. There were surgeries after surgeries, and I didn't really believe in myself. I didn't feel good about my body."

All that changed, though, once Embiid played his first NBA game - a 20-point, seven-rebound, two-block outing against the Oklahoma City Thunder in October 2016.

"Once I played in my first game, I figured out I was going to be one of the best players in the league, if not the best player in the league," Embiid said. "So from that day, I just kept pushing and now I'm here."

Here, for Embiid, is in Los Angeles, where he's set to play in his first NBA All-Star Game. Healthy now in his second season, the 23-year-old earned a starting nod by putting up 23.7 points, 11.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 1.8 blocks through 44 games, while carrying the Sixers to the seventh-best record and third-best point differential in the Eastern Conference. He's already one of the league's best players, but he doesn't want to stop there.

"I really feel like I have the potential, and I'm not even kidding about it," he said. "I have the potential to be the best player in the league."