What’s unique about the Sixers’ ridiculousness is that they usually introduce it gradually. That’s an important point to think about when you think about the ridiculousness on display Tuesday afternoon. As crazy as the Sixers are – and they are pretty crazy – they usually wait at least a month or two before arriving at a place that most functional organizations would classify as not serious. In fact, their ability to create this introductory period of common sense every year is the biggest contribution to the relevance they’ve managed to maintain for seven years in history’s most single-minded drive to nowhere.

The point is, crazy feels a lot crazier when you go completely crazy from the jump, rather than establishing a baseline of normalcy and then steadily deviating from it. That’s what the Sixers did Tuesday afternoon when they 1) announced that their star center would join their star forward in not participating in the first home game of the season and then 2) acted surprised that people didn’t just treat it as a completely normal and unremarkable state of affairs.

“They’re evaluating them here as we go,” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said. “As soon as we can get them out and get them scrimmaging and performing, we’ll get them in.”

Oh, okay, nice. Keep us informed. We’ll be the suckers sitting in the seats you sold us while you claim Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey would be playing in their first game together heading into that long-awaited NBA Finals.

Honey, buy my KJ Martin jersey! It’s going according to plan!

Embiid is of course the critical figure here. George will not be in the lineup for Wednesday’s season opener against the Bucks due to a hyperextended knee he suffered in a preseason game against the Hawks. That makes sense. As for Embiid? Everything is going well, apparently. He just doesn’t play. He will also not play the rest of the opening week.

“Listen, I think we were really smart and stuck to the plan with Joel,” Nurse said. “PG him not playing was certainly not part of the plan. He had an injury during the match, so we are now taking that into account. Absolutely, I respect how good both conferences are…going there and winning ballgames will be a challenge, not just for us but for everyone every night. We’ve got some depth and some experience and we’ve got some good players and we’re going to go out there and see how we look.”

To be fair to the Sixers, there’s really nothing notable about Embiid missing a game under mysterious circumstances. It is notable that Embiid will miss the first game of the season. And not just any season, but a season in which he and George should give the Sixers their best chance at an NBA Finals since early 2000. But the truly remarkable part is that the Sixers didn’t feel the need to provide a coherent explanation why Embiid isn’t playing.

In doing so, they broke with their long October tradition of at least trying to pretend that this year would be different from the rest. They’ve had years where Embiid missed three of the first six games (2019-20), or eight of the first 20 (2022-23), or almost all of November (2021-22). But he’s always there for Game 1, and with him comes the promise that everything might just go according to plan.

Despite all the ups and downs of the past seven years, despite all the fame that ultimately comes with it, the Sixers have always managed to start the season the same way most normal NBA organizations do. You know, with hope. Fall arrives and everyone jumps in and convinces themselves that the water sure feels good. When the star center misses a game, it’s just a game, until it isn’t. At that point it doesn’t matter anymore because it’s one day closer to return. And he will return. Trust us. Just don’t ask us when. When he does, the Sixers will return to the team they promised, the one you’ve already glimpsed. And by the time you get wise, the Eastern Conference semifinals will be here, and then it will be summer. Anyway, thanks for all your support. See you next year.

Maybe Tuesday afternoon was our fault. Maybe we’ve been resigned to the ridiculousness for so many years that the Sixers thought we were going to be co-conspirators in it. Maybe they really thought they could stage the most anticipated season opener of the era without the two players most responsible for that anticipation, and everyone with tickets would simply shrug. Maybe they really thought everyone would ignore two seemingly incompatible statements: that Embiid wouldn’t play, and that it was all part of the plan.

» READ MORE: The Sixers have big plans for the 2024-2025 season, but will make sacrifices along the way

The plan.

The nurse used the phrase no fewer than five times Tuesday afternoon as she tried to answer all the questions any reasonable person would ask.

Is everything okay with Embiid’s surgically repaired knee?

Was there ever a setback while participating in training camp?

Is he having trouble recovering from his participation in the Olympics?

Has he registered as a conscientious objector?

“There have been no setbacks,” Nurse said. “Again, he’s very active. He’s lost some weight. He’s on the field and so on. We’re just making sure we stick to our plan to make sure we get it in a really, really good spot before we let it play live.

To be clear, this is not Nurse’s fault. He just happened to be the guy the Sixers trotted over to explain something that apparently has no explanation. That is exactly the failure of the organization.

The problem isn’t that Embiid isn’t ready to play in the season opener more than five months after playing a full playoff series, more than two months after playing a full Olympics, and more than three weeks after the Sixers to a training camp in which he (reportedly) participated in everything but live scrimmages. The problem is that the Sixers don’t feel they owe their paying customers a good faith effort at disclosure.

On Tuesday, reporters spent 10 minutes trying to pin Nurse on the official explanation for Embiid’s absence. The tenor of the back and forth was more incredulous than hostile.

“This gets him where he needs to be to get him on the field,” Nurse said.

But Why?

Assuming everyone involved is a rational actor, there’s clearly a sensible explanation for why Embiid isn’t where he needs to be right now to get on the field.

» READ MORE: Call him Dr. P: Paul George has a recipe for a healthy Joel Embiid

A possible explanation is that there is an acute problem in his surgically repaired left knee. He simply isn’t healthy enough to play. All available evidence suggests that this is not the case. The knee didn’t appear to limit Embiid on Tuesday as he ran half-court drills with George and a squad of assistant coaches after practice. His teammates have been talking as if his return is imminent, based on their firsthand observations of how he moves.

A second possible explanation is that Embiid doesn’t feel like he’s in good shape, and his standards in that regard are high given the fragility of his knee. Most summers he has four months to rest and recover and rebuild before the next season starts. This year he achieved half of that, thanks to the Olympic Games.

What doesn’t make sense is why the Sixers wouldn’t just say that. If they allow Embiid to dictate the flow of information, the employee-employer relationship may need to be reevaluated, especially in the wake of the decision to give him a three-year contract extension worth $193 million.

Explanations only work if they make sense. If Embiid misses the season opener, and the Sixers simply stick to their plan, and nothing about that plan has changed since it began, then the logical conclusion is that it was always the plan for him to miss the season opener.

“I don’t know what to say to you,” the nurse said. “He’s in practice. He looks good. He’s making progress. He’s not quite ready yet. He’ll be ready soon. I don’t know what else to say to you.”

That makes us all.

The Sixers open their season Wednesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Wells Fargo Center. Join Keith Pompey and Gina Mizell at 3 p.m inquirer.com/gamedaycentral as they preview the match and the season ahead.