After the Philadelphia 76ers embarrassing Game 7 loss to the Boston Celtics yesterday, Damian Lillard was on Twitter replying to Embiid’s postgame quote about how he and Harden “couldn’t do it alone” in the playoffs. 

The clip itself, of course, was trimmed down and really didn’t explain the full context of Embiid’s statement. 

The quote from Embiid that Dame questioned was the following…

“Me and James, we can’t win alone.“

That’s why basketball is played five-on-five. We need everybody to find ways to be better.”

Almost immediately, the kind folks on Twitter who don’t just read and watch and react to whatever edited clip is posted online, jumped to Embiid’s defense, explaining to Dame that wasn’t the entire quote. 

The edited down clip wasn’t not fair. Anyone who saw the full quote knew that from the jump.

I will say, however, the full quote wasn’t much better either.

Here’s the actual quote from Joel Embiid in its entirety. 

Embiid was referencing James Harden’s future with the Philadelphia 76ers and the fact that he’s a free agent next season. 

The statement still stinks. 

Damian Lillard then quote tweeted one of the replies…

Dame asks the question, “Did I miss or did you?” which of course is cool as shit, much like everything Lillard does on and off the basketball court. 

He also mentions that he loves Embiid and the Sixers’ roster which is interesting because I absolutely love Damian Lillard and would do horrible things to have him in a Philadelphia 76ers uniform next season. 

Unfortunately, that probably won’t happen, but please, just let me have one positive dream about the Sixers’ future. 

Dame is still under contract for the next two seasons in Portland and won’t become an unrestricted free agent until the 2025 season. 

There’s a lot of talk about moving James Harden to get Lillard to Philadelphia, but that’s highly unlikely.

James Harden: “This is only Year 1 for us.” 

While James Harden was brought here to win an NBA Championship with Joel Embiid, that of course did not happen. Harden lived up to his reputation in the playoffs and was inconsistent at best, failing to show up for the biggest games of the series against the Boston Celtics. 

James Harden Game 7: 9 PTS, 3/11 FGM, 1/5 3PM

Reports have already begun to circulate that James Harden could decline his player option for the 2023-2024 season and head back to the Houston Rockets. 

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski says there’s “a very real possibility” that James Harden returns to Houston.

“If [the Rockets] win the lottery … and they’re the ones who can draft Victor Wembanyama, my sense is that would not necessarily change the Rockets’ intentions to pursue James Harden.”

Woj on James Harden returning to Houston

James Harden has a player option for the 2023-2024 season to come back to the Philadelphia 76ers.

The price tag is $35 million. 

Also worth noting, even if Harden does leave the Sixers for someone who is (stupidly) wiling to offer him that type of money, the Sixers will still only have roughly $8 million in cap space so it’s not like they have much wiggle room regardless. 

Still, like I said in the the article I published earlier today, I do not care where James Harden goes next season, I just hope that he doesn’t return to Philadelphia under any circumstances, but again, that doesn’t mean that the Sixers have enough draft picks or talent on their roster to trade for someone like Damian Lillard unless they want to get rid of Tyrese Maxey. 

And nobody wants that, right? 

Right. 

Join The Chase