Don’t blame the media because Joel Embiid created the drama
The favorite sport of many Philadelphia sports fans is to blame the media. If they hear something that they don’t care for, they will blame the questioner or whoever made it public. If fans are devoted to a player, anything they do or say is excusable. Those who react or discuss it are the ones who are responsible for creating the drama that ensues. It’s a tale as old as time. Unfortunately for the 76ers, Joel Embiid has taken what is already an off-season of turmoil and thrown a verbal grenade. Worse yet, when confronted about it he retreated and claimed he was joking. There was a joke Joel, that was the effort of our star players in Game 6 and 7 vs Boston.
For many, speaking the truth is a problem and it doesn’t mean they are liars. They say exactly what they mean. It’s when they see a reaction to what they say that they backtrack. That is where the deception begins. Joel Embiid sits down with Maverick Carter and was discussing “what can we expect in the future from Joel Embiid”? His answer was that “I want to win a championship, whatever it takes. Whether that is in Philadelphia or anywhere else.” It took a few hours for him to then proclaim “I was trolling”. The time to hide out behind your Twitter account is long gone.
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Who exactly would Joel Embiid be trolling? Is he trolling the fan base? Why would he want to do that? More importantly, what reason would he have to do that? This fan base was completely destroyed by yet another second round playoff collapse. When the city needed their stars most, Embiid and Harden went M.I.A. in the home stretch of Game 6 at home and then disappeared in Game 7. If anyone deserves trolling it was them. Instead, the majority of the fan base seemed to rally around Embiid and turn on Harden. The consensus being that Harden was just living up to his playoff reputation while Embiid got betrayed. Why the blank check of support for Joel? It’s probably because some of his playoff collapses can be blamed on injuries. That is the only consistent part of his post season resume.
No matter how the 76ers will try to do damage control, Embiid has an eye on the door. He wasn’t trolling. He spoke the truth and then was informed that he needed to do damage control. The idea that he was trolling is more comical than his Game 6 disappearance. Embiid needs to own his statement. He realizes like many stars before him that his window yo win a title is closing here. What he fails to grasp is that most stars who want to leave to ring chase have a playoff resume where they weren’t a major reason they don’t have that ring. Joel obviously believes he’s fine enough and that somehow others have been letting him down. It’s mind-boggling. At some point the mirror calls for everyone to pay attention to themselves. You just have to look at it, you can’t troll yourself or this fan base.
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