The Sixers are still dealing with the fallout from last season’s locker room scandal, when details of a private players-only meeting were leaked to the media. Now, Joel Embiid is adding fuel to the fire, revealing that he knows who did it, without giving away the name. Naturally, the basketball world is buzzing with speculation. Who would do such a thing? And are they still in the building? It was a truly brutal act of betrayal that did irreparable damage to the trust in the locker room.
In his latest public interview, Embiid implied that the person in question is still his teammate, narrowing the potential list of candidates to players who have been on the 76ers since at least November 2024. Today, we’re looking at five names who could realistically be behind the leak that shook the 76ers to their core, even though we may never truly know who is responsible.
Tyrese Maxey
We don’t know if Maxey is guilty, but he was the one directly quoted calling out Embiid in the leak. As the story goes (reported by Shams Charania), he put his co-star on blast for “always being late,” leading to a heated and awkward exchange in the locker room. While Maxey and Embiid are described as being close, it’s clear that Maxey was fed up with Embiid’s bad habits at this point.
Of course, the young shooting guard has otherwise been supportive of Embiid and doesn’t have a reputation for stirring drama. With an average of 26.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 6.1 assists per game last season, he’s essential to the 76ers’ success, and his being the leaker might explain why he’s still on the team after such a devastating betrayal. Even if he were responsible, the Sixers may have looked the other way simply because he’s too valuable to lose.
Kyle Lowry
Lowry only joined the 76ers last summer, and he was still relatively new to the team when the meeting took place last year. According to reports, it was actually Lowry who initiated the meeting after an abysmal 2–11 start. In an act of frustration or desperation over the situation, he might have leaked the meeting to try and inspire his team in a new direction.
As a longtime NBA veteran with a reputation for leadership and privacy, Lowry isn’t the first name you’d expect to be the mole, but he was clearly one of the first ones to raise the alarm on the trajectory of the season. If he felt there was no other way, it’s possible he may have let the media in on what happened during that confidential meeting.
Front Office Mole
What if it wasn’t a player who leaked the 76ers meeting? While it was a very private and exclusive chat, someone high up in the organization may have found out and leaked the details to shift blame or shake things up. We know GM Daryl Morey has resorted to shady tactics before, and who’s to say he didn’t do it again by snitching on his own team?
The organization sacrificed everything to build a contender around Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George, but their failures have put the entire franchise in an impossible situation. If Morey wanted to plant the seeds of a breakup to shake up the current regime, it makes sense to cause division in the locker room and dissolve any trust between team members. Or maybe he simply wanted to light a fire under them by starting a media controversy early in the season. If true, the plan backfired completely.
Paul George
The 76ers never had a leak in the locker room before Paul George entered the scene. In his first 13 games with the team, things got so bad that they had to resort to an emergency meeting to get on the same page. If George felt targeted in this meeting or frustrated by the clear dysfunction, he might have felt compelled to expose the situation in the locker room.
While George eventually did condemn the leak on his podcast, things never improved for him or the Sixers last season. In what was supposed to be a fresh start for George, he endured one of his worst seasons in years for a 76ers squad that struggled to stay relevant in the East. If Embiid suspects that it was he who leaked the meeting, it could cause some issues for their partnership this upcoming season.
Fringe Rotation Player
If it wasn’t a major rotation player, it’s possible that someone with a less prominent role could have leaked the meeting. Someone like Eric Gordon, Reggie Jackson, or Ricky Council IV might have something to gain by talking to the media. At the very least, their loyalty to the team is significantly reduced, which means that they have much less to lose by leaking private team information.
Of course, it’s also much easier to get rid of these role-players, meaning Morey would have no excuse to keep the mole around. Regardless, for a team that’s light on depth already, having unreliable or untrustworthy players off the bench is no way to compete, and it’s a recipe for failure in the modern NBA.
Who Leaked The Meeting?
At a glance, Paul George seems like the most likely answer here, just based on his history and what we’ve seen from his time in Philly so far. It’s been an utter disaster, and his struggles might make more sense if it’s the result of a cold war with his teammates.
But whether it’s George or someone else, whoever leaked the 76ers’ confidential team meeting may never be publicly revealed, but the damage is already done. With trust fractured and questions lingering inside the locker room, Joel Embiid’s cryptic comments hint at a deeper dysfunction that could haunt this team all season. If the leaker is truly still in the building, it’s only a matter of time before things boil over again, and Philly may not survive another collapse from within.
