It’s a dark day in Philadelphia. After going up 3-2 over the Boston Celtics last week, most NBA fans and experts thought that the Sixers would be able to close the series out and finally advance to the Conference Finals for the first time in the Joel Embiid era.
Instead, they would go on to lose both close-out games in embarrassing fashion… leaving the entire franchise with more questions than answers about the future. To make matters worse, Joel Embiid was not very understanding to his teammates and even went so far as to call out the role-players after taking the L.
“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.”
“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.” 😳
– Joel Embiid
(Via @SIChrisMannix ) pic.twitter.com/U0BDThQ0rU
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) May 14, 2023
Of course, Embiid isn’t wrong with his statement. With 19 total points, Tyrese Maxey was the leading scorer, and nobody else bothered to show up. No matter how good Embiid is, he’s going to need the rest of his team to do more if they want to win games.
The problem is both Embiid and Harden were horrible in Games 6 and 7. Tonight, they combined for just 24 points on just 27% shooting. So if Embiid wants someone to blame, there’s really nobody more deserving than himself. Injured or not, he’s the star of the team and the MVP of the league, so the 76ers’ failures ultimately fall on him.
Joel Embiid Is The Only MVP To Never Reach The Conference Finals
With the reigning MVP having been defeated in embarrassing fashion, a lot of fans find themselves rethinking where Embiid ranks among the best players in the world. As LeBron James, Jayson Tatum, and others are playing their best basketball, Embiid is coming off an absolute stinker, and it has been a recurring theme for him in the postseason.
The truth is, until Joel proves that he can deliver in the playoffs, nobody is going to trust in his game. It’ll be up to Embiid to prove the doubters wrong and make amends for these mistakes, or his reputation may never fully recover.
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