Nov 18, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) looks on against the Miami Heat during the third quarter at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Tyrese Maxey's growth as a leader was the talk of training camp.
That facet of his stardom was talked up so much that you nearly believed Joel Embiid was preparing to hand the keys to the franchise to his younger running mate.
With all the ostensible home runs the Sixers hit in the summer, no one would've guessed that Maxey would have to pull the 'leader' lever in a team meeting following Monday's ugly loss to the Miami Heat.
But, you don't get to fall to 2-11 on the season — one in which the expectations were championship-or-bust — without a closed-door meeting.
Losing builds pressure. Pressure bursts pipes. A message has to be sent. But, it doesn't necessarily have to go public. Not unless you have reason to believe that the message wasn't fully received.
I asked Joel Embiid about the team meeting and whether it was positive. He responded: “Oh, we had a meeting? I don’t know.” #Sixers
It's one thing to keep private details private. It's another to dip into your comedic personality to play it off. There's a time and a place. 2-11 sure as hell isn't it.
The other reason for private details to go public is that there's an incentive to save something or someone.
And so, you get Tuesday's bombshell story.
"He's grown a lot. You could tell, just being around. Especially, really, since last year. Taking more of the role to being a vocal leader and screaming. I'm not screaming. I just give you the look if I'm mad at you. But, he's going to talk, which is, like I said, a great match," Embiid said at training camp.
Use his voice, Maxey certainly did.
According to The Athletic, Maxey appealed to Embiid behind those closed doors: "Joel, you know I love you. But it starts with you, and your habits." Maxey, who has a close relationship with Embiid, called out his friend for being late to too many team functions.
The less-important-but-still-important part of the story is how these details were made public. Someone has to be motivated to talk. Embiid, the engine that has made this franchise go for the better part of the last decade, has historically been tight-lipped about matters that do him no good to make public. Because of his stature within the franchise, because of his importance to this team, it only makes sense that there is motivation to figure out how this was all dished to ESPN's Shams Charania.
Jake Fischer said as much on a Bleacher Report live stream on Tuesday afternoon.
But, the more you dig into ESPN's reporting on the meeting, the more angles you find. More angles mean more sources.
Let's start with this sentence from a paragraph in the report: "Maxey is highly regarded as a young leader by many in the organization and those around the team were not surprised that he spoke up on Monday."
While it's difficult to dispute the validity of the first half of that sentence, it's a bit of an unnecessary inclusion.
Now, do I believe Maxey patted himself on the back while simultaneously making his good friend and partner in this business look bad? No.
Could someone who has incentive to make Maxey look good have seized an opportunity as the guard's return from a strained right hamstring looms? Possible.
How about this one: "Tyrese loves Big Fella, but this is the elephant in the room," a person involved in the meeting told ESPN.
"Elephant in the room" isn't a foreign phrase for one high-ranking member of the organization, for whatever it's worth:
found the leak pic.twitter.com/D45W2zQioh
There's incentive for the head coach to speak. If this thing continues to sink, someone is going to be the fall guy.
And then there's this bit: "Players told 76ers coach Nick Nurse they want to be coached harder, and coaches in turn said they want players to practice with purpose and attention to detail. Embiid accepted the messages sent in the meeting, sources said, but he stated that he is sometimes confused about what the 76ers are attempting to execute on the court."
In fewer words, this is the blame game. You get to this point because Embiid is just one of the problems at hand less than a month into the regular season.
To be clear, this is not intended to cast accusations regarding who is responsible for this story going public. Rather, the point is to demonstrate the importance of understanding all of these underlying angles. They illustrate what's going on beyond the tip of the iceberg. It's not just what Maxey said to Embiid, what players said to Nurse, what coaches said to the players or what Embiid said in return. It's all of it, together. The pressure, which is only magnified by the losing, brings out a very human instinct — protecting your own ass. It's messy. It's evidence of deeper issues surrounding chemistry and cohesion. It's the blame game.
But, for a variety of reasons — chief among them probably that Embiid is so guarded about private information — we almost certainly will never know who let the details leave the confines of that locker room in Miami.
The leak, itself, is the less important problem, though.
Here's more from ESPN on those aforementioned habits: "Maxey challenged Embiid to be on time to team activities, calling out the 2022-23 league MVP about being late 'for everything' and how it impacts the locker room, from other players to the coaching staff, sources briefed on the meeting told ESPN."
The bigger problem is three-fold.
The simplest one: Embiid is 30, going on 31. That he needs to hear harsh truths from a 24-year-old is embarrassing. Embiid deserves credit for persevering through all of the adversity he has to reach the heights he has in his career. He's had to grow up quickly, handling dark times far away from family at a young age. He's done quite a bit of maturing over his career. But, when a teammate seven years younger than you is criticizing your habits, it's time to reflect on whether you've traveled the full arc of your maturation curve.
The second one: If Embiid's behaviors are eliciting these responses at almost 31, it calls into question whether he'll ever fully grasp the domino effect that his example has on the rest of the team.
The final and most important one: It's not just what was said. It's who said it. Maxey has the cachet to drive that conversation because he knows Embiid so well. He knows when it's the best of times and the worst of times. That he felt the need to impress upon Embiid just how urgent this matter is serves as clear indication that the concerns go beyond just getting everyone healthy. Showing up for team activities on time is the bare minimum of being the face of a franchise. The Sixers go as Embiid goes, following in his every step on the basketball court. If he has to be called out for not doing the bare minimum, it is more than fair to wonder whether Embiid is about all the little things that go into achieving that which he has never before.
The pressure will only build from here, each additional loss adding gasoline to the Sixers' gangbuster offseason and threatening to light a match.
The Sixers will drape their hopes over the fact that Embiid, Maxey and Paul George have yet to log a single second together this season.
They will drape their hopes over the prayer that Embiid will play himself into his usual dominant form.
But, like usual, it all starts and ends with the big guy. The substance of Monday's private team meeting calls into question whether Embiid knows that.
