Before Joel Embiid was an NBA All-Star, before he was the quintessential piece of The Process in Philadelphia, he was a highly-regarded five-star prospect who signed with Kansas out of high school. He had realistic NBA prospects and a promising career that is now being realized -- all of which almost didn't happen after an embarrassing moment he had early in his Jayhawks career.

In a Players' Tribune article Embiid penned himself this week, he described in detail a hilarious account of him getting dunked on by former teammate Tarik Black so hard, he says he nearly up and quit.

My very first scrimmage at Kansas, I got dunked on so hard by Tarik Black that I almost quit. Tarik dunked on me so hard that I was looking at plane tickets home. This guy was a senior. He was a grown man. I didn't know what was going on. He got his own rebound and dunked over me so hard that everything went in slow motion.

He dunked the ball off my head, for real. But I didn't even tell you the worst part. The worst part was that the entire Kansas women's hoops team was sitting in the bleachers watching the scrimmage. The whole gym was laughing at me. It was crazy. Seriously, it was like a WORLDSTAR situation.

Embiid would go on to say that after getting embarrassed by Black, he approached Hall of Fame coach Bill Self about the prospects of redshirting as a freshman. Self, knowing Embiid's potential, abruptly shut down the proposition: "What? Are you serious?" Self said. "In two years, you're going to be the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft."

Turns out, Self was pretty close. Embiid went on to have a hugely successful 2013-14 season at Kansas, averaging 11.2 points, 2.6 blocks and 8.1 rebounds per game before going on to be the No. 3 pick of the 2014 draft.