Joel Embiid’s interview with ESPN shows an on-going feud with the 76ers Front Office, a locker room rat, fractured relationships, and an updated, murky timeline to return

Joel Embiid sat down with ESPN for a long and relatively boring write up, filled with recycled headlines throughout the Sixers season last year.

You can read the whole thing here. Outside of Embiid watching the Phillies on his phone and being completely disinterested in the actual interview, I did find a few parts somewhat interesting while also not the least bit surprising.

Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers Locker Room Rat

There’s an issue that is still gnawing away at Joel Embiid inside the Philadelphia 76ers locker room and all started after a story was leaked to the media about a confrontation with Tyrese Maxey during a closed-door meeting.

If you recall, the Sixers had a closed-door meeting after their disastrous 2-11 start last season. Predictably, details from that meeting leaked to the very next day, specifically in regards to a confrontation between Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, where Maxey reportedly called Embiid out for being late to team events and dragging down morale.

Embiid, at the time, didn’t take too kindly to the leak. He told a reporter, “Whoever leaked that is a real piece of shit.” Fair enough. Trust matters and Embiid made it clear that trust was gone. Now, months later, Embiid apparently knows exactly who it was.

“I know who leaked it,” Embiid said during a late-night call after the season.

When asked directly if that person is still on the team, Joel danced around it.

His answers:

• “I don’t know.”
• “Free agency just started.”
• “There’s a chance they’re still around.”

Brother… you know exactly who’s on your team.

So here we are. Mid-July. All quiet on the Sixers front, except for the fact that one of Embiid’s teammates is apparently a locker room snitch. A rat. Someone who took a private team moment and handed it to the media.

Maybe it’s someone obvious. Maybe it’s someone unexpected. Maybe it’s someone who’ll be gone by October. Maybe not.

Joel Embiid has a severely fractured relationship with the Sixers front office

After months of uncertainty, false starts and recurrent swelling, Embiid couldn’t take it anymore. In February, before a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, Embiid told ESPN’s Lisa Salters that he would need another surgery, which reportedly surprised the organization. Morey acknowledged that surprise in our meeting.

“If you don’t want to listen to me, then I have to find something else, to make sure that I’m going to be listened to,” Embiid tells me. “When I told Lisa that, I think it was a cry for help. … It feels like everybody refuses to acknowledge what’s actually going on.”

Joel Embiid, the Philadelphia 76ers’ franchise cornerstone for the last 10 years felt like he had to go to Lisa Salters of ESPN to cry for help? That’s organizational malpractice at it’s finest.

Joel Embiid’s on-going feud with roster turnover

Joel Embiid revealed that James Harden doesn’t speak to him anymore.

“No one knows this, but even James [Harden] is not talking to me. That’s the part I don’t like about being ‘that guy,’ because it puts you in the middle of those situations. Because if you ask James, he probably believes I had something to do with him not being here. And I’m just like, ‘I won the scoring title. You won the assists title. We had a pick-and-roll that was unstoppable.’ It hurts when you feel like you haven’t done anything wrong. When you think you have a relationship like that with somebody … you lose a lot.”

We all know that Daryl Morey is 100% at fault for anything that had to do with James Harden. Joel Embiid had nothing to do with it, obviously.

That’s something well-known amongst the fanbase but the fact that Embiid continuously questions the roster construction and turnover, every single year, is clearly a problem he’s not willing to let go.

Joel Embiid wants a movie about the 76ers chaos

“I HOPE ONE DAY someone makes a show or, whatever, writes a book about it,” Embiid says of his time with the Sixers. “We went from GMs having burner accounts. And then we’ve had great guys that we drafted, but then again, stuff happened that no one could ever figure it out. The drama, Sam Hinkie being kicked out, bringing in the Colangelos. It’s been a lot of things that have happened. And that’s what I’m talking about when I’m talking about continuity. It starts at the top.”

Again, we all want to know how bizarre things were in the locker room during the past two decades of Philadelphia 76ers basketball. Embiid nails all the main points and yet again, brings up continuity and mentions it starts from the top.

“I always told myself I will never be responsible for someone losing their job, someone getting traded, someone getting fired,” Embiid says. “Don’t ask me about if we should sign and if we should trade anybody.”

Joel Embiid on his rehab and injury history

“You didn’t just casually say you showed up and dropped 70 without warming up, did you?”

He looks at me and says, “I guess.”

And for a second, I can’t tell, hours into talking to him, months into looking at him, whether this is one of his tests of my credulity. But his smile starts to tell, slow and sly until it cracks into laughter, and I know — he’s serious.

He takes me on a sentimental journey, one with familiar steps. First, he fesses up: “That’s not the right approach. The right approach would be to come in, get your lift in.”

Then manages, just about, to look himself in the eye: “When I was younger, I still took care of myself but not enough.”

He takes a breathless step forward, near to the dark heart of it, the narrative that buttresses all the others, What if Joel did this to himself, what if he’s to blame: “I don’t know if that could’ve played a role in some of the injuries that I’ve had.”

Before retreating into safety consolation: “How do you stop someone elbowing you in the face,” he asks. “How do you stop someone falling on your knee? You can’t stop that. And it happened, a meniscus tear, because someone fell on your knee. It doesn’t matter what type of preparation you do.”

All that’s fair. Sure, everyone will be mad about Embiid’s early-approach (or lack thereof) earlier in his career but when you can go out and drop 70 points in a game with little-to-no preparation, does it really matter?

I would argue that it doesn’t when focused on that specifically. When you’re talking about career-longevity, of course it matters and it’s something Embiid continues to struggle with, even today.

Joel Embiid on current injury and timeline for return

WHEN EMBIID AND I speak for the final time in late June, he tells me he’s making some changes this offseason.

“We’re not going to push anything,” he says. “For my whole career, I felt like we never took that approach.”

A week before, Morey had said he was hopeful Embiid would be back in time for training camp in September.

“We don’t have a timeline,” Embiid tells me. “Hopefully, sooner rather than later.”

I ask if the organization supports his new, patient approach.

“I don’t know how they feel. The only thing I’d say is — this is a business,” Embiid tells me. “It’s all about the results. … If I come back early enough and I’m still not myself, guess what? You’re not winning any games.”

I’ve been telling everyone that Daryl Morey is full of shit and Embiid basically confirms it right there. Embiid has no clue when he’ll be ready to return to the court, but at the very least he’s taking a more mindful approach to rehab this Summer.

As for the rest, we’ll just have to wait and see.

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