The Inquirer’s Gina Mizell was in Memphis on Wednesday night and got some quotes from Joel Embiid following the latest dumpster fire of a Sixers loss:

MEMPHIS — Joel Embiid sounded off after details from the 76ers’ lengthy team meeting Monday night — including that teammate Tyrese Maxey called out the 2023 NBA Most Valuable Player for tardiness — surfaced through multiple reports citing anonymous sources, saying “whoever leaked that is a real piece of [expletive].”

“We talked about a lot of things [during the meeting],” Embiid said following the Sixers’ 117-111 loss to the Grizzlies on Wednesday. “I don’t want to get into the details, but that whole thing [with Maxey] probably took 30 seconds. But then again, it’s Joel Embiid, so we’ve got to make everything blown out of proportion.

“It’s whatever. I’ll take it all. I’m the reason for everything, so I’ll take the blame for everything.”

There are some more Embiid quotes in the story about his relationship with Maxey. He thinks the team meeting thing is being exaggerated.

To be honest, I was going to give this blog post to Pagan, because when it comes to the Sixers in November I’m like East Greenville native Sabrina Carpenter. My give a fucks are on vacation,” as she once said.

But Pagan is off, so I have to handle the story, and here’s what I’ll say:

I just don’t care about this. I can’t generate any interest in this story at all. When we talk about the Sixers, the general rule is that we want to slumber through the winter and wake up when the playoffs begin. The regular season just does not matter, and they are certainly making that apparent in 2024. “But this is different,” you say. Okay, sure, they are 2-12, they absolutely stink, and there’s more drama surrounding the franchise, but is this really any different than any other season that we’ve watched since 2017? We survived Burnergate, Ben Simmons holding out, James Harden calling Daryl Morey a liar, and multiple second round playoff collapses. A rookie almost died from a food allergy and another forgot how to shoot the basketball. None of this fazes me at all. Are you fazed? If you are, I don’t believe you. We’re just soulless basketball husks at this point. We’ve been through so much shit with this franchise that it no longer registers.


Joel Embiid has always been a troll and somewhat lacking in the maturity department. He is never going to be the type of leader that Philadelphia sports fans prefer, like a Brian Dawkins or Malcolm Jenkins type. But going by the ironclad mantra that “two things can be true,” Embiid is also a generational talent and the best player to wear a Sixers uniform since Allen Iverson. Injury concerns being what they are, of course the franchise was going to ride his tenure as long as possible in an effort to win a title. They weren’t going to trade him, or let him become a free agent, or anything like that. Embiid is Embiid, and the best we can do is hope he gets it together, stays healthy, and gets this team into the playoffs.

The bigger concern I have is Nick Nurse. What the fuck is he even doing out there? What is this offense they’re running? There’s no ball movement and nobody can generate an easy look. The coach doesn’t become injured and the coach isn’t on a minutes restriction. There’s no load management for Nick Nurse, who needs to coach 82 games, and right now it looks like Doc Rivers 2.0 over there on the bench. Stop dicking around with the rotations, play your best players, hone in on what works. Figure it out man.

Anyway, Eagles are 8-2. Go Birds.