PHILADELPHIA — In the past two weeks, the 76ers and Joel Embiid have announced that they plan to have Embiid miss at least seven home games — the home opener last week, Wednesday’s return of Tobias Harris with the Pistons, and one game of each of the five back-to-back tandem games on the schedule.

That means their 14,000 season-ticket holders will be deprived of at least 17% of the entire value of those season tickets. They bought these tickets in the good faith that Embiid, the team’s first superstar since Allen Iverson, would earn the money they’d already spent to watch him. Well, that’s not going to happen.

As such, the Sixers should offer them a refund.

Contacted Wednesday morning, the Sixers declined to comment on the prospect of issuing refunds.

The NBA on Tuesday fined the Sixers $100,000 for violating league policy for the Embiid situation, which is like fining you and me $1. Here’s a suggestion: Increase the fine to $1 million, and assess it for every game Embiid misses henceforth.

It’s a start.

The audacity with which the 76ers have operated since Josh Harris bought them in 2011 becomes more staggering every year. It began with a disastrous trade for Andrew Bynum, who never played a game; continued through the absurd tenures of Sam “The Process” Hinkie and Bryan “Burner” Colangelo; somehow got worse with the condescending reign of Doc “You don’t know basketball” Rivers; and, most recently, devolved into 1 1/2 ridiculous seasons of bearded party animal James Harden.

What is it with their best guys not wanting to play in October?

In 2021, Ben Simmons refused to play. In 2023, Harden refused to play. Now, in 2024, no Jo. At least this time, we’re told, the feeling is mutual. Embiid showed up to training camp out of shape again and couldn’t get ready for the start of the season, so to minimize the risk of further injuries, and to increase his chances of actually making it through an entire season for the first time in his decade of NBA employment, they’ve instituted a personalized fat camp.

“He’s lost some weight,” coach Nick Nurse said last week, as Richard Simmons surely smiled down from above.

Not playing the most significant player in franchise history does not exactly foster goodwill. And the Sixers, who are in their 12th year of an absurd rebuild called “The Process,” and who have not advanced past the second round of the playoffs since the first Harry Potter movie, need all the goodwill they can get.

They seek to build a controversial, $1.55 billion arena complex that will disrupt, if not destroy, the Chinatown neighborhood to which it will be adjacent. They claim that they will foot the bill for the construction portion of the project, but it will, inevitably, at least cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure alterations. I am completely in favor of the project, on which legislation was introduced just last week, but it’s tough to sell this sort of project when the best player isn’t playing.

We addressed Embiid’s lack of professionalism and commitment last week, when the Sixers told us he would miss at least the first three games of the season, including two road games. He will miss a fourth game Wednesday, which, again, is the second home game.

So it’s time to address what clearly is a fraudulent sale of a product by the Sixers to their fans.

He is The Process

There would not be 14,000 season-ticket holders if Embiid was not on the team. He is the most talented player in the NBA, grading on the curve of his giant size. He is, arguably, the most skilled center in the history of the game. He is a monstrous box-office draw.

And, granted, he also is the least-dependable superstar in the history of the game. And, granted, ticket buyers knew this going in.

But Embiid played in the Olympics just over two months ago. There was no reason for ticket buyers to believe that he wouldn’t be ready for the start of the season. However, when he showed up for camp, the team and Embiid apparently agreed on a “plan.” This plan existed when the Sixers sold the tickets to the home games they knew he was not going to play.

At the very least, the Sixers owed it to their customers to let them know that there was a chance he might not play. He is not injured. He just isn’t “ready,” according to Nurse.

And so they have confessed their knowledge that they would not have him available for these games. Before the season, any person who bought a ticket had reason to assume that Embiid would be available for these games. Since he is not, anyone who bought a ticket and would like a refund should be given one.

On Tuesday, the team — specifically, Nurse, who, like Brett Brown and Rivers, has to take the bullets for Sixers madness — wouldn’t even respond to questions that sought to detail exactly how long Embiid will be relegated to earning technical fouls for waving towels while the other team shoots free throws. This actually happened. So, not only is Embiid not playing, he is actively hurting them.

You can’t make it up.

Buyer beware

Look, all ticket buyers should be aware that every ticket they buy for any NBA product does not guarantee that they will see all of the best players. But the NBA understands that the sort of shenanigans the Sixers are using are horrible for their product — a product that, thanks to expansion, has experienced a dilution of talent; and, thanks to so many early entries into the NBA draft, features a glut of undeveloped 20-year-olds. This has rendered most regular-season games, which weren’t exactly compelling 20 years ago, utterly unwatchable today.

Still, no matter how seldom the stars actually play, intentionally withholding information regarding the availability of arguably the biggest draw in the league clearly deceives ticket buyers. And that’s exactly what the Sixers have admitted to doing, and continue to do.

Joel Embiid has an injury history but he is not injured. Joel Embiid is participating in some parts of practice.

Joel Embiid, the biggest star in Philadelphia, who will make more than half a billion dollars for playing basketball here, is electively not playing in games for which fans have prepaid in the clear hopes that they will be entertained by him as much as, if not significantly more than, any of his teammates.

And here’s the rub: This fraud will continue.

Mr. 46 Percent

There’s no guarantee that Embiid will play in the next home game, either. It’s on Saturday. Furthermore, it’s highly unlikely that Embiid will play in all of the ensuing home games, even if they’re not back-to-backs; after all, he’s missed 46% of regular-season games since the Sixers drafted him in 2014. So it’s fair to assume that he’ll miss 10 home games, none of them due to injury. That’s about 25% of what every full season-ticket holder paid for.

Maybe it doesn’t have to be a 100% refund. Maybe there’s a formula the Sixers’ celebrated analytics department can devise to determine the value of Embiid’s absence. Like, if he’s worth one-third of their points, you get refunded one-third of the cost of your ticket.

Where would the money come from? Well, the team is worth around $4 billion, according to services that calculate such things. Forbes.com says principal owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer — private-equity moguls and owners of multiple sports franchises, including Philadelphia rivals the Washington Commanders and New Jersey Devils — are worth more than $13 billion.

They’re generally decent dudes, but, as ruthless billionaire investors, they can be tone-deaf to the communities in which the franchises are located. Harris once landed his $8 million helicopter in the middle of a school soccer field in New Jersey, then refused to return at the prescribed time because the Devils game he was attending went into overtime. That forced the cancellation of a youth soccer game on the field.

Need extra cash for refunds?

Sell the chopper.

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