MartyConlonOnTheRun wrote:Can we get a TLDR? It seemed like the author was trying to write the next great American novel ...
"I wonder if he might politely show me the door. We make small talk for a bit. He looks bored.
He does this with new people -- gives little of himself, pretends not to watch while he weighs and measures."
Like come on man....
The scribe was definitely guilty on that charge.
tl;dr -- Embiid's people and the 6ers commissioned a puff piece that still manages to paint him as grating and a trial to be around. Has an excuse for everything and blames everyone but himself.
Some of my favorites:
EMBIID IS GETTING COMFORTABLE, stretching his legs. I ask him why some people who adore him have jokingly called him an a--hole.
"I like to troll a lot," he says. "I wouldn't say I'm an a--hole."
He thinks on it for a second, then concedes, "At times, I can be an a--hole."
We stood in the aftermath of a galling media cycle. It started in late October when a Philadelphia Inquirer writer mentioned Embiid's son and his late brother in a column chastising Embiid's lack of professionalism and inability to stay in shape. The column implied there was a gap between Embiid's conduct and his public statements about playing to honor his brother's memory.
"I've done way too much for this city, putting myself at risk," Embiid responded days later. "I've done way too much for this f---ing city to be treated like this."
"I don't care if the NBA wants to fine me $1 million, $2 million, $5 million, $10 million, I would still do it," Embiid says. "If he walked up to me just like he did, I would push him away again."
Embiid told a reporter, "Whoever leaked that is a real piece of s---." He reportedly vowed to find the source.
"I know who leaked it," Embiid tells me during a late-night phone call after the season ends.
"You do?"
"Yeah, but I'm not going to -- the past is the past," Embiid says. "The one thing I'll say is, it's hard being around people that do those sorts of stuff.
"That goes back to the trust thing. Once you cross that -- you can't expect me to be part of a team meeting again. That's just not going to happen."
"The way you're talking, it sounds like this person is still around," I say.
"I don't know," he says.
"Come on, Joel, you know who's on your team right now," I say, laughing.
"Free agency just started," he says. "I don't know what's going on."
"So there's a chance this person may not be around next season," I say.
"No," he says. "There's a chance they're still around."
I ask him in what ways he is responsible for being misunderstood.
"Go through all the media narratives," Embiid says. "I haven't been paying attention. So, I don't know what's happened."
He's kidding, of course. I'm expecting him to smile any second now.
But he doesn't. Instead, he repeats himself, his voice more urgent: "Go through the narratives."
"It's not making excuses. When you're hurt every year and everybody knows it, it's the truth," he says. "Now, do you believe, if he was 100 percent, does he have what it takes to have a chance at winning? I think a lot of people believe that because I've shown it in the regular season when I was healthy."
Now, he's the one leaning forward.
"What if I did this and I was like, 'You know what? I'm just going to chill all season and coast and average 25? Or 20.' And in the playoffs, I go average 30. Would that make me look great? Probably. If I went from averaging 23 to 30 -- a playoff riser. Oh, my God. Joel Jordan. Whatever.
I also highly recommend the sections that talk about his lack of commitment around the rehab process (and the 76ers coddling of his ever-changing needs), how Harden no longer speaks to him (claiming he believes Embiid got him sent out of town, which he denies) and the mysterious part near the end where he talks about the relationship with one of his PTs, who considers Embiid like a son, having withered under strange circumstances.
I think I'm finally glad we took Jabari.
.
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