It wasn’t exactly a secret that the 76ers had a team meeting Monday night after falling to 2-11 — they didn’t open the locker room for about an hour after the game and didn’t speak to the media until then.
However, what has fueled Joel Embiid and Paul George is that some of the details of that meeting have leaked out. One of those details was how Tyrese Maxey told Embiid that the former MVP needed to set a better example by showing up on time to team meetings and events, the tidbit that became the headline from the meeting. Embiid took responsibility for having to set the tone, but was pissed he became the story.
Joel Embiid when asked about the details that emerged from Monday’s team meeting: “Whoever leaked that is a real piece of shit. But even then, we talked about a lot of things. I don’t want to get into the details, but that. the whole thing probably went on 30 seconds.”
— Gina Mizell (@ginamizell.bsky.social) 2024-11-21T05:22:49.066Z
It wasn’t just Embiid who was angry, on “Podcast P with Paul George”, the 76ers wing echoed Embiid’s sentiments.
“The conversation should never have been just leaked, period. It wasn’t even like a meeting that went that direction of the blame game or people being confrontational to that extent. You know what I mean? So that it should never have gotten to that. Outside, period Whether you want to think it’s for motivational purposes to the media or not, it wasn’t that kind of conversation to be leaked and loud arguing back and forth and it was heard and then now something leaked, but it wasn’t like that energy there. So me don’t know why or how that leaked.”
Details of these closed meetings always end up in the media, and usually in the same way: After it’s over, players call their agents to talk (or get out) about it, and then it’s the agents who turn things over to the media to put. their player in the best light. Sometimes, a player or coach will leak things for strategic purposes, but one way or another, the content of the meeting tends to get out.
The idea of Maxey calling out Embiid was indeed blown out of proportion — welcome to social media — but it also fit a pattern of what we heard from behind those closed doors. Embiid reportedly said at one point that he did not
to fully understand what the team was trying to do on offense, while other players told Nick Nurse they wanted to be coached harder. It sounded like a mixture of frustration and organizational dysfunction. There are a lot of new players, a top-heavy roster with three stars who have played just six minutes together this season (and won’t add to that total for at least a few more games with George suffering another bone bruise), role players who haven’t stepped up, and it’s led to the worst offense in the league so far.
Start winning, and there will be no more need for these team meetings or stressing about leaks from them.
