Jimmy Butler’s a smart guy. He’s a respected veteran presence on a young team. So when he says the 76ers are going to go as far as Joel Embiid and his virus ridden corpse are going to drag them, that the team needs to “ride or die with the big fella,” Philadelphia fans should listen up and be inclined to do the same.
The 76ers are going to “ride or die with the big fella” because anyone with half a brain knows that an Embiid with one functional lung and explosive diarrhea is better than the shit gumbo of Greg Monroe/Jonah Bolden/Boban Marjanovic at center.
The Sixers aren’t going to win anything without him, so why are so many fans and media members hell bent on trying to run him out of town already? We’re seriously questioning the heart and desire of an MVP candidate who has only played 2.5 years of professional basketball?
Butler wants to ride-or-die with Embiid. How about we all stop being stupid and do the same? Or are we careening to our destiny five years from now when Embiid refuses to re-sign with the 76ers, Ben Simmons has already left, and we’re watching a 39-win team led by a fat-and-out-of-shape Kyle Lowry and wondering where all the talent went.
“WHAT HAPPENED?! WHY DO WE SUCK NOW?”
We suck because we ran the best young center in the NBA out of town because we were mad he couldn’t play through the flu.
I get it. Game five was awful. Embiid was awful. He was drained, he was ineffective, he wasn’t himself. He deserved the criticism he got for not playing well. All true. But the amount of “takes” and “theories” of fans and talking heads in this city that are second-guessing his motives for playing, if he should have played in the first place, or if he was just using the sickness as an excuse, is astounding.
Of course he should have played. It doesn’t matter how sick he is, if he could drag himself out and play 20 minutes it gives the 76ers a 10-fold chance of winning compared to Monroe and Boban playing 30+ minutes. Monroe has literally played six good minutes this entire series and all of a sudden he can give the 76ers quality minutes in the most important game of the year?
We went from serenading him with MVP chants in game three to openly questioning his future with the team in game five. Jesus Christ, I shudder to think what this city will do if he loses tonight. Angelo Cataldi will be calling for him to be tarred and feathered and dumped outside of the city limits.
It’s clear he’s hobbled by the illness. He’s not “making an excuse” or “using it as a crutch” as so many are claiming. I get the flu and I’m shopping for coffins and wearing a black veil. I guarantee you 99% of his critics who say he should have “gutted through it” have missed work for being hungover or are currently scamming their unions with fake workers comp claims. The last thing anyone wants to do when they’re sick is run around for 48 minutes, so give him a break if he’s grimacing on the bench or slowly walking out to the court. He’s doing his best not to shit his pants, forgive him for not making kissy faces to the TNT cameras all night.
And what if Embiid didn’t play? What if he actually chose to sit out because the virus or illness was making him a shell of himself, as so many said he should have? CAN YOU IMAGINE THE FERVOR FROM THIS CITY IF HE DIDN’T PLAY? My god, the takes alone about him “not being a Philly guy” would level a city block. He’d be skewered after we watched Monroe limp out of game five with a -65, three points, two rebounds, and 12 turnovers.
Hell, even with him gutting through the game, one sports talk host in this town said a “public shaming” is needed to set Embiid straight. A public shaming? If it didn’t work for Cersei in Game of Thrones it’s not going to work for Embiid. Did he want Brett Brown to put him in the stocks outside of Wells Fargo Center so fans could hurl tomatoes and rotten cabbage at him? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!
This tough guy Philly nonsense is so fucking stupid. Embiid, by all definitions, is a gamer. He wants to play. If you want to point at the franchise making him sit games for “load management” that’s fine, but it’s a reality for all superstars in this league with injury histories. Nobody is an iron man in the NBA anymore.
But saying he can’t play through “the sniffles” is moronic. We really want to run an MVP caliber player out of the city for this? FOR THIS? Because he has bad luck and got sick? Because he looked sad on the bench? Because he wasn’t high-kicking his way out to center court for the jump ball? Get the fuck out of here.
All the rats are jumping ship. Whatever. It will be lovely sweeping them off the deck when things start going right again and they try to scramble back aboard.
Ride-or-die with the big fella, Philadelphia.
21 Responses
Wow. Great Embiid apologist article.
Trying to wrap my head around how Embiid is not using his “illness” and his “injury” as an excuse as it’s all we’ve heard about since the All Star Break.
Also, trying to wrap my head around how as soon as the “knee injury” went away he was sick, then suddenly cured, then deathly ill. Send him to the Mayo Clinic. They may want to observe this dude.
Against Boston last year, was he sick then too? Because he looked pretty bad. Not as bad as this year when there’s been more pressure on him, but he looked pretty bad.
That said this being the NBA, Sixers win tonight–easily. The league wants a game seven, prime time on a Sunday night.
Jimmy Butler’s angling for max money. That he hasn’t punched out Embiid or Simmons yet is a miracle. Can’t wait for a few years until the Sixers are still stuck paying a broken down 34 year old malcontent who hates his teammates 40 million a year because he was the only who showed up in the 2019 playoffs.
Sanely point out faults in an article here and it gets censored.
Kyle has a ‘Stalin’ ‘know it all’ complex and must eliminate anything he does not agree with or like.
Better watch out he might come and get you and take you to the GRU.
someone should tell this author that Joel Embiid is FAT AND OUT OF SHAPE right now !!!
Can’t waut for tonight baby !!! You gotta believe baby . We the underdogs now baby !!!
Can’t wait to get my dog mask out of the closet for tonight game baby
The wells fargo center will be razed before the sixers -OR- flyers win another championship.
Idiots are running and coaching these franchises.
So get your dog mask on and walk back and forth across the walt whitman carrying your protest sign.
Shang Tsung had to go with Scorpion and Sub-Zero and the Sixers need to keep Simmons and Embiid.
In fact, the comparison is almost exactly on the nose the exact same.
What idiot wrote this article?
Embiid is nothing more than a broken down *ussy who can’t even make it out on the court
half the time…….AND everyone gives him a pass…but they’ll grind wentz into the ground.
Look forward to the sixers tanking another game and losing the series because
they didn’t feel like playing. Looking forward to a bucket full of excuses and how the team
‘will get it done next season’. Looking forward to the coach getting fired so the real
culrpits, the coddled players, won’t have to be called out. Looking forward to a new coach being hired
and treating the players the same, coddling and kissing the players @SSES and not holding them accountable.
Biologically speaking, i don’t know how its possible for
Embiid to be og the rag for the 4th time in a 30 day span.
Maybe he needs to go on hormone therapy because of low estrogen levels.
Or then again, maybe he should get in FN shape and be held accountable.
Which the sixers do no do with their players.
Game 6:
Toronto 120
Sixers 94
BREAKING NEWS: JoJo woke up and coughed once…..sick again. FUCK EMBIID FUCK SIMMONS FUCK THE FUCKING PROCESS GO RAPTORS!
That wasn’t a cough. His ‘pad’ slipped out of his panties and he had to double up.
Shouldn’t the player coddling A$$ kissing coach Brett Brown be handling
this personally for Embiid?
Wow, rose colored glasses much? Come on dude – some criticism is deserved. I trust someone like Marc Jackson pointing out that never in the history of the league has a superstar player been questionable, probable, doubtful, game time decision, etc before EVERY SINGLE game in BOTH playoff series so far. This is unprecedented. To act like it’s all just bad luck and that his eating habits, actions, sleep, etc doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with it is comical. I mean, look at him. If for nothing else, it is obvious that he is at least 20 lbs heavier now than he was at this time last year. JFK, he gets paid millions of dollars. He has a responsibility to make sure he’s doing everything he can to be in tip top shape. He can handle a little criticism. He’s from Africa. He’s not some SJW who doesn’t think it’s fair to criticize anyone. Honestly, the criticism may be just what he needed to assure this is a wake up call for him and that it won’t happen again next year. Get over yourself.
Your second to last sentence is the money shot. For some reason the criticism of a coddled professional athlete making crazy money in a highly competitive business makes people like the author feel uncomfortable, but the fact of the matter is the criticism was necessary and will end up being the catalyst that will set him straight and will be the wake up call he needed. This will make the sixers better next year and likely prolong his career.
ha
Lot of talk about Jay Wright as the next coach. Does anyone think he can get through to Embiid and Simmons? Would that hire save the chance to keep Butler here, because I think he’s gone after seeing Tuesday night’s give up. Who can straighten out this mess? I’m curious about Wright but don’t know who’d be the right coach.
“The last thing anyone wants to do when they’re sick is run around for 48 minutes, so give him a break if he’s grimacing on the bench or slowly walking out to the court. He’s doing his best not to shit his pants, forgive him for not making kissy faces to the TNT cameras all night.”
Sorry but your story is not factual. You are combining two separate “aliments” in order to try to make a stronger point. He didn’t have the shits in game 5. Game 4 was “shits”. Game 5 was “upper respiratory infection”. Nice try though.
game two was the stomach issue
Thanks for the clarification. This makes the writers attempt at combining both ailments into one game even more of a reach due to the games being over 1 week apart. No one was complaint about Joel’s demeanor on April 29th
Yes. game two was the stomach. Game three 100% healthy. That “sore knee” plaguing him since February healed as if touched by the Lord Himself. The back issue he suffered all year…GONE! And then somehow a stomach virus that was out of his system, worked its way into his lungs and brain and gave him…what? Skin failure? What does Doctor Nick Riviera, head of the Sixers medical staff, say today?
Embiid could use some mentoring time with Tim Duncan, who dominated and was a grown-ass man who didn’t crave the spotlight with the maturity of an insecure teen. Barkley was right about Embiid’s frequently miserable, camera-playing body language. You think Duncan, Kareem or any greats acted this way? They didn’t project weakness but led by example.
Embiid Injury/Illness Timeline
• All-Star Break until the start of playoffs: Embiid misses 14 games for left knee tendinitis after only sitting out four contests from October through mid-February.
• Game 1 vs. Nets on April 13: Embiid is listed as doubtful – left knee injury
• Game 2 vs. Nets on April 15: Embiid is a game-time decision
• Game 3 vs. Nets on April 18: Embiid – listed as OUT – due to left knee soreness
• Game 4 vs. Nets on April 20: Embiid is once again listed as doubtful but plays
• Game 5 vs. Nets on April 23: Embiid is listed as probable despite the knee injury
• Game 1 vs. Raptors on April 27: Embiid is not listed on the injury report, but scores just 16 points on 5-for-18 shooting in a loss.
• Game 2 vs. Raptors on April 29: Embiid is listed as probable and misses the morning shootaround due to gastroenteritis.
• Game 3 vs. Raptors on May 2: Embiid is off the injury report and scores a game-high 33 points to go with five blocks in a victory.
• Game 4 vs. Raptors on May 5: Prior to the game it is reported Embiid was sick the night before and had trouble sleeping. It is later revealed he was throwing up and needed an IV before the game to deal with what coach Brett Brown called a “virus.”
• Game 5 vs. Raptors on May 7: Embiid is listed as probable on the injury report with an upper respiratory infection.
This happens all the time with superstars in the NBA playoffs who were rested 14 games after the all star break leading up to the actual start of playoffs. Please move along. Not one shred of criticism is warranted. Chalk it all up to bad luck. Nothing to see here. LOLOLOLOLOL
Simmons is the biggest coward, utterly useless in the playoffs and a total liability on the team to be sure, but Embiid is close behind. He can yukk it up against poor competition (and act like a total jerk in the Process) but folds like an accordion the minute the going gets tough. Embiid demands out and Simmons already gone? Are you trying to alarm us, seriously? Fact is, we can only hope, two less useless vaginas on the team. By the way, Butler, Harris , and JJ are useless as well. Embiid is sick for the last two games and rest of the team showed what they are made of. Estrogen.
Comments are closed.