It has been a nightmare season for Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers.
The perennial conference semifinalists have started the season with an abysmal 2-12 record that is bad enough for the worst in the NBA through 14 games. And this comes after the high profile addition of Paul George that was supposed to allow the Sixers to truly challenge the Boston Celtics for Eastern Conference supremacy and make a legit run at a championship.
Obviously, that has not happened. And while all of Philly’s Big 3 (Embiid, George, Tyrese Maxey) have struggled with injuries so far this season, most of the blame is falling at Embiid’s feet.
After playing in the Olympics, Embiid did not appear ready to start the regular season amid mysterious circumstances. Things were compounded when he came out publicly pledging not to play in back-to-backs. And it got worse this week when ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Maxey confronted Embiid in a team meeting over constantly being late and causing issues amongst players and coaches.
In responding to the report, Joel Embiid didn’t necessarily blame the messenger, he blamed the leaker. In fact, he did more than that. He said, “Whoever leaked that is a real piece of —-.”
When asked about Monday’s team meeting in Miami, Sixers star Joel Embiid said “Whoever leaked that is a real piece of shit”
Also: It’s kind of annoying having to deal with the same things over and over and over
— Tony Jones (@Tjonesonthenba) November 21, 2024
To his credit (at least a little bit), Embiid also took responsibility for his lateness and said that he would improve his punctuality, although it might be too little too late at this point. And it’s going to get lost in the shuffle of him having harsh words for the Shams report being made public.
Among other things, Embiid took accountability for being late and told media that he plans to improve:
“I need to be better. I need to be perfect, I need to be on point, which I’m going to do,” Embiid said
— Tony Jones (@Tjonesonthenba) November 21, 2024
If the report was leaked to send a message to Embiid, it’s going to take time to see if it makes a difference in his play on the court or buy in off the court. But right now it may take a lot more than that to change the direction of The Process.
All of this follows an episode earlier this season when Embiid was suspended after shoving a reporter in the locker room after taking issue with what was written about him. Who knows what’s going to happen to the person that did get this info to Shams if Embiid ever finds out who did it.
