Tyrese Maxey Calls Joel Embiid Out For Excesive Lateness
The Sixers are a mess right now. They are 2-11, Joel Embiid missed the first few weeks as he ramped up, and Paul George and Tyrese Maxey both missed games for injury. What was supposed to be a new era for the Sixers has been so in all of the wrong ways.
Now, after the most recent disaster down in Miami, the team called an emergency team meeting. In that meeting, Tyrese Maxey stepped up as a leader and called out the former MVP. Embiid has apparently showed up late to several team activities.
It comes on the heel of Embiid already being the subject of scorn. Many in the city place the blame for this poor start on him not being ready to go. Whether or not that is fair is one question. Embiid’s health is not 100% in his control, but missing that many games to start the season, and looking lethargic in the first 3 games he did play, is understandably frustrating.
But what is in his control is if he shows up on time. Showing up on time to things is easy. There is no excuse for not doing so. We now know he was not doing so, thus him being called out by Maxey for excessive tardiness.
Will Tyrese Maxey Calling Out Joel Embiid Turn Things Around?
Maybe that team meeting and Maxey’s leadership could be the spark the team needs to turn things around. Maybe it will motivate the big man to step his game up. But it also could be just the start of an utter collapse.
How the team, and Embiid in particular, reacts to this, will tell you a lot about this team. They faced adversity, they had a heart-to-heart. By all accounts, Embiid was receptive to Maxey calling him out. But we won’t know for sure until we see how they react. The next game could tell the story of how this season goes for the Sixers.
It also should be said the Sixers’ problems do not begin and end with Embiid. Him missing the start of the season, and struggling his first few games back is obviously a major problem. But the fact the team struggled this badly without him is a terrible sign as well. Nick Nurse and Tyrese Maxey are not blameless, but at least Tyrese Maxey is doing his part as a leader to try and fix it.
It is not too late yet, but it is getting late. 13 games is more than a 1/10th of the way through the season. They have at least gotten help from the rest of the East struggling. Even at 2-11, they are only 4 games back from being out of the Play-In Tournament. If they fix things now, they can find themselves in a decent position, but it needs to happen fast. If they dig themselves any deeper, they may not be able to get out of it at all.
Also, why is what is being said in a closed-door meeting ending up on the front page of ESPN? The fact the meeting happened, and Maxey called out Embiid, is great. The fact we know what was said is a really bad look for a team that seems to have a ton of issues already.