WATCH: Joel Embiid calls out Daryl Morey after T-Wolves win and nobody should be surprised by that

Joel Embiid and the Sixers beat the Timberwolves on Friday night in one of their best wins of the season. Good vibes. Full roster. Smart decisions from the bench. Three hours of actual optimism about where this team is headed.

Then Embiid spoke to the media and called out Daryl Morey.

The short version. Joel Embiid said he found out he was ruled out for Wednesday’s Wizards game by looking at his phone online. Not from the coaching staff. Not from the front office.

From the internet. He said he wanted to play, was not allowed to, and that anyone curious about why should go ask Daryl Morey. He closed with “I don’t know what’s going on. I just want to play basketball.”

Joel Embiid on not playing on Wednesday:

"I was pissed off. I wanted to play basketball. I wasn't allowed to play basketball. I think this is more of a question for Daryl Morey."

— Joel Embiid on not playing on Wednesday.

(via @PHLY_Sixers)

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Sixers bounce back after an ugly first half to beat the Timberwolves 115-103

Full Answer from Joel Embiid:

“I was pissed off. I wanted to play basketball. I wasn’t allowed to play basketball. So I think this is more of a question [for] Daryl Morey and whoever makes the decisions. I think going into Miami, I was pretty sick. But I understood how important that game was and still wanted to give us a chance to go out there and try to do something, because of how important the game was. Same thing. Felt a little bit better going to Washington, definitely much better than I felt against Miami. Woke up – didn’t sleep until probably 5:00 in the morning or 6:00. So with that, couldn’t make it to shootaround. And then after that, I found out online that I wasn’t playing that night. So yeah, that kind of caught me off guard and, yeah, that pissed me off. But then again, I guess they make the decisions, so it doesn’t matter what I think or not. I’ve just got to follow. But, yeah, to answer your question, that’s more of a question for Daryl and them. So, yeah, they’ve got to – yeah. I don’t know what’s going on. I just want to play basketball.”

Honestly? Both things can be true here and they are.

Daryl Morey is and has always been an organizational disaster dressed up in analytics buzzwords. The Sixers have been a front office mess for years and the fact that their franchise cornerstone found out he was not playing in a playoff seeding game by reading about it online is completely on brand for how this organization operates.

Morey has made a career out of making big moves that look smart on paper and fall apart in practice. Nobody in Philadelphia likes him. Nobody around the league particularly respects the way he runs things. This is not a new development.

At the same time I genuinely do not care that Joel Embiid sat out on Friday night. I really do not. The man has had more surgeries than most people have had doctor visits. He has been banged up all season.

Joel Embiid missed a team activity because he could not sleep and that is a legitimate health concern for a guy managing a body that has been through what his has. If the Sixers held him out because they needed him healthy for the playoffs then I am completely fine with that decision even if the communication around it was a catastrophic disaster as usual.

Here is the truth about seeding with a healthy Joel Embiid. It matters less than people think. A fully healthy Joel Embiid changes every single matchup in the Eastern Conference bracket. Fifth seed, sixth seed, seventh seed, play-in, it does not matter nearly as much as whether he can go forty minutes in April and May.

That is the whole thing. That is the only thing.

So yes, Morey is an asshole and this organization communicates like it has never heard of communication. Yes, Embiid publicly embarrassing his front office four games before the playoffs is not ideal. And also yes, if sitting out one game against the Wizards means Embiid is locked in and healthy for a first round series then it was the right call regardless of how poorly it was handled.

Lock in. Focus on the main thing. The seeding race is real but Embiid healthy is the only seeding that matters.

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