The Philadelphia 76ers are not in a good way this season and experts are still trying to determine what exactly went wrong. Now, in the aftermath of a leaked confrontation between Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, Paul George and his Sixers teammate Reggie Jackson went public on the ‘Podcast P’ show to provide their own perspective of the ordeal.
Paul George: “That’s normal in the NBA– teams go through that. I’ve been on multiple teams where we’ll at some point have a meeting and a check-in if things aren’t going right or if we know we could be playing better and we’re trying to get the most out of one another, that’s normal. That happens. That’s not really, you know what I mean? Like something to run with because teams go through that and it was healthy, it was positive conversation, it was healthy conversations. We all just want the best. We are at a point where we’re a team that cares, right? A team that naturally cares about what’s going on with their team. They’re going to have sit-downs and they’re going to discuss, how can we get back on track or start winning tradition or winning culture. So that’s just where we’re at with it. Again, it was all positive and healthy conversations, but it being leaked, that’s where it kind of negates everything that we had in that meeting as far as trusting in one another and putting everything out there so that we can all have these conversations and it being not taken from a bad place. So it was kind of f*cked up that got leaked.”
Young shooting guard Tyrese Maxey went viral this week for reportedly calling out Joel Embiid on his tardiness. The confrontation came during a recent team meeting for the 76ers, who are currently dead last in the Eastern Conference.
Only a select few people know who actually leaked the 76ers’ private team meeting but he better hope that it stays a mystery. For George and Joel Embiid (who called the leaker a piece of sh*t), revealing their private meeting was the ultimate betrayal that completely washed away any trust they had built.
Reggie Jackson: “I don’t pay attention much to what’s going on. I’ve heard a little bit, we’ve talked probably a little bit about it, but no, it was just a positive meeting. Honestly, not doing too well right now as we want. Still have a long season ahead of us– but really we sat there, and just talked about the game, things that we feel like we can improve on, things that we could be better on, and then how we can just try to put this behind us and just move in the right direction and be positive. So it is kind of interesting. I’m just probably sitting here wondering how it got out more so and then more so what people are going to make of it, but there was no negativity from the whole thing– guys with each other in the mirror. We just sat down for a while after a loss and I think just got our ideas out there about how we’ll figure things out…”
The point that Reggie and George are trying so hard to convey is that the meeting in question was not about players blaming each other or venting their anger amidst the struggles. It was just a positive conversation meant to address some of their major concerns.
Still, someone interpreted it differently and it makes you wonder if everyone is truly on the same page.
Paul George: “I’ll say the people that were in that room is the people that’s supposed to be in that room and it’s the people that go out and we’re in the trenches with, on a nightly basis. That’s who was in that room.”
The meeting included both players and coaches and multiple people spoke up on the trajectory of the season. With no way to know who leaked the meeting, the only thing the 76ers can do is move forward and try to find a way to win.
Reggie Jackson: “Oh man, there’s speculation on who’s in the room. The world feels like they know who’s in the room. We’ll let them deal with that and think about that. But I think in-house of course we’ll figure things out. We’ll continue to be a team and we’ll find a way to move forward and take care of business as a team…”
Only the 76ers know what happened in the locker room that day but Paul George is making it clear that there was no negative energy. Despite being criticized by his co-star, Joel Embiid was receptive to the feedback and left the meeting feeling good about the future.
Paul George: “The conversation should have never just been leaked, period. It wasn’t even like it was a meeting that went in that direction of the blame game or people confrontational to that extent. You know what I mean? So it should have never gotten out, period. Whether you want to think it’s for motivational purposes to the media or not, it wasn’t that type of conversation for it to get leaked. I can see if there were two dudes challenging each other and loudly arguing back and forth and it got overheard and then now something got leaked out but it wasn’t that type of energy in there. So I don’t know why or how that got leaked.”
The 76ers might never find out who is leaking their private business but they have bigger fish to fry right now. At 2-12 in the East, the 76ers need to worry less about what the media is saying and more about how they can turn this season around.
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