The Philadelphia 76ers have certainly not had an uneventful summer. From James Harden’s trade demand to Tobias Harris calling out the team’s “casual fans” and Daryl Morey’s questionable decision to troll the fanbase along the way, it’s been a rollercoaster of an offseason for the team and their fans. The latest in this long line stems from Joel Embiid’s recent appearance in a live interview with Maverick Carter.
The eventful interview began as an opportunity to discuss Embiid’s partnership with the Springhill Company, which was founded by Carter and LeBron James. While the interview was largely about the new media company, Miniature Géant, the discussion also revolved around Joel Embiid’s life and career up to this point.
While that may have been the reason for the interview, the takeaway by many quickly became a soundbite of all soundbites from Embiid about his desire to win a championship and his future in Philadelphia:
“I just want to win a championship, whatever it takes. I don’t know where that’s going to be, whether it’s in Philly or anywhere else. I just want to have a chance to accomplish that, I want to see what that feels like to win that first one, and then you can think about the next one. It’s not easy, it takes more than one two or three guys. Got to have good people around you, and myself, every single day I work hard to be at that level so I can produce and make it happen. Every single day that’s working toward that goal, that’s where my mindset has always been. MVP is just an added bonus.“
It was striking for many to hear Joel Embiid mention the idea of playing elsewhere, as it is the first time he has publically done so. Sure, there have been rumors of other teams, namely the New York Knicks, having interest in Embiid, but despite the frustrations he has faced with the Sixers, there have been no public rumblings from his camp about a potential desire to be moved. The opposite has even been true, as The Athletic’s Sam Amick wrote just today on Embiid’s future in Philadelphia.
Amick states that according to a source, neither Joel Embiid nor any of his representatives have expressed any interest in leaving Philly any time soon. He also says that the Sixers organization hopes Embiid can be counted among names like Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki in terms of franchise players who played their entire careers with a single team. Whether or not this information was released as a method of PR damage control, a debate could relentlessly be had.
Later on, Embiid continued and spoke about the challenge that is the NBA grind, particularly that of trying to get to that goal of a championship:
“I like the challenge. Can be frustrating at times, because over and over and over, same things might happen. There’s never any continuity, all my years in the league, I feel like every single year it’s always been different teams, it has always been change. But I do like the challenge. It doesn’t matter who’s on my team, I just want to go out and try to do the best job possible and to put us in a position to win.“
You can watch the full interview here:
I’m not going to pretend that I understand the why behind Joel Embiid’s decision to make these comments. It was a cognitive decision on his end to make them, but if his desire was to state dissatisfaction with the organization or stoke a fire under their seat, or perhaps even just to troll the fanbase and others, no one can say save for Joel Embiid. Regardless of the why behind it, this offseason continues to be an uneasy one for the Philadelphia 76ers, and something must change before the start of the season.
