Who will be the next NBA star to play their entire career with one team?

PORTLAND, OR - MAY 18: Damian Lillard #0 of the Portland Trail Blazers and Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors looks on during Game Three of the Western Conference Finals of the 2019 NBA Playoffs on May 18, 2019 at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images) /

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3. Joel Embiid

Very close between Embiid and the next guy on our list.

Philly has had only one legend in their history spend his entire NBA lifespan with the organization, and even that’s a misnomer because Dr. J spent the first half of his career in the ABA. Ditto for Billy Cunningham, who went to the ABA later in his playing days. Allen Iverson and Charles Barkley, the best Sixers from the last 30 years, finished their careers playing elsewhere.

Perhaps no athlete has ever embodied a city more than the Answer did the City of Brotherly Love. Even Embiid, who gave himself a nickname synonymous with the method by which he was drafted, is a caricature of an athlete whose act would play anywhere. Maybe he gets bored at some point and wants to try out a different locale.

But he also comes off as someone who adores being embraced, and the city of Philadelphia has done that in spades. The fans are Embiid’s muse and vice versa. They feed off of each other in a way that no other star/fan base duo can contend with in 2019, not even Curry, who is more a darling of the NBA as a whole than the city of Oakland individually.

Will it last? Who knows.

But it can’t hurt.

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