Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid suggested Saturday that if not for injuries, he would be in the conversation as one of the NBA’s greatest players of all-time.

As part of an interview on The Daily with David Marchese of the New York Times, Embiid agreed with the premise that he could have been viewed as a GOAT candidate had he been healthier over the course of his career even though he has yet to win an NBA championship or reach the Eastern Conference Finals:

“I think so,” he said. “I think I’m that talented. Obviously you need to win championships, and to win championships you need other guys. You can’t do it by yourself. I want to win so bad. But if you don’t, you just got to understand that as long as you care about the right stuff, if it doesn’t happen, maybe it wasn’t meant to happen.”

Embiid went on to add that “freak injuries” have held him back over the years, saying: “If you think about it, the thing that stopped me all these years is just freak injuries. Every single playoffs, regular season, people falling on my knee or breaking my face—twice. It’s always freak injuries at the wrong time.”

When informed by the interviewer that his stance would likely be a source of great debate in sports media, Embiid stood firm, saying: “That’s OK because that’s the truth. I mean, you think about what I’ve been able to accomplish and what has been taken away because of injuries. There’s a lot of what-ifs, but if you combine collectively and individually, you can make the case of being up there.”

The 30-year-old Embiid went third overall in the 2014 NBA draft, but he missed the entirety of his first two NBA seasons due to foot injuries.

In eight seasons since then, Embiid has earned seven All-Star nods, five All-NBA selections, three NBA All-Defensive Team selections, two scoring titles and 2022-23 MVP honors.

The seven-footer has averaged better than 30 points per game in each of the past three seasons and 10 or more rebounds per game in each of the past seven.

The 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons were the healthiest of his career, as he appeared in 68 and 66 games, respectively, but injuries limited him to just 39 games last season.

When he played, Embiid averaged a career-high 34.7 points per game, bettering his previous career mark of 33.1, which he set in his 2022-23 MVP campaign.

For as good as Embiid has been, the Sixers have not advanced past the second round of the playoffs during his career, which perhaps hurts his GOAT argument even more than the injuries.

It doesn’t help his case that his career overlaps with that of Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić, who has been healthier, won three NBA MVP awards and won both an NBA championship and the NBA Finals MVP Award in 2023.

Embiid can possibly change the narrative with a deep playoff run, and he may have the team to get it done in 2024-25, as the Sixers signed nine-time All-Star Paul George to play alongside him and Tyrese Maxey.