“I haven’t forgotten, but two years ago, I was booed, people in Philadelphia wanted to change me. I even had to silence them. Only the real ones I don’t. During that summer, I strived to be better. I knew I wasn’t playing to my full potential. Philadelphia fans, you have to be better too“These are the words of Joel Embiid, in one of the many tweets he has written in recent days. The pivot is very active on social networks, but the fact of complaining is predominant in his most recent messages, sometimes tinged with fine irony, others with well-chosen sarcasm, but almost entirely, of a clear and direct directionality, that leaves no room for dissimulation, or anything like that.
In Philadelphia, things are going from bad to worse. And that, it seemed impossible that the situation after the defeat in the Eastern Conference semifinals, against the Hawks, it will become even darker. The entity has not found a way out for Simmons or his spectacular and excessive contract (that of 177 million in five seasons) and they seemed resigned to stay with the player, with a poorly disguised management with which they pretended to show that they loved him and that they did not they had looked for a way out for him. Nevertheless, it was the star himself who requested the transfer to a franchise that had high hopes put in a project that makes water from all sides.
Meanwhile, journalist Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today Sports, He assured that the distance between Embiid and Simmons was already sidereal after increasing in recent months. Words denied by Embiid via Twitter, assuring that he still adored his partner and that what the rumors said, that which builds the narrative and the discourse of the best League in the world, was a lie. Everything and then put the tweet with which we have started these lines, some words that, for many people, are not only addressed to fans, but also to Simmons himself. The comparison of the summer of work referred to by the Cameroonian contrasts with that of the Australian, who has asked to leave after many turbulent months and the shadow of pessimism waving over the project.
The future is not exactly rosy. The team, mythical in the past and an NBA supporter with a huge basketball culture, has not appeared on the map of the candidates (not to mention the favorites) since the departure of Allen Iverson. And he has not played a Conference finals since that historic 2001 in which they collected individual awards., they reached 56 victories and thrilled in some playoffs in which they suffered in the semifinals and in the Eastern finals (seven games per round), before reaching a Finals in which they left their mark (Iverson’s 48 points in the initial duel ) and inflicted the Lakers their only loss in those playoffs (15-1, only beaten by the Warriors 16-1 in 2017), before falling in the next four games and waking up from a nice dream.
Now, nothing is what it was. The connection with the public has been lost, the Trust the Process and the years of tanking have proven not to be the right way, the change of coach has not taken effect, Simmons is not what he promised and his relationship with Embiid is in question. The point guard can come out, the center says a lot, does a lot and achieves little, Doc Rivers has lost his aura and Daryl Morey tries to find impossible solutions. Nothing works, the defeat against the Hawks has completely weakened them and the future is stained in black, it is absolutely blurry and impossible to predict. The cards are face up and the play that the Sixers have does not give to win any hand. Things have to change a lot in Philadelphia, with or without Simmons, to recover the pride of the past. This is the subject: that past, increasingly distant. The present, upside down. And the future, more than uncertain.