Sixers news: Joel Embiid’s postgame comments criticized; ESPN’s JJ Redick takes a shot at Doc Rivers
Doc Rivers #DocRivers
Future Sixers contracts for James Harden, Joel Embiid, and everyone else
// Timestamp 05/15/23 10:07am
With the Sixers’ season now over, all eyes will be on James Harden, who can either walk as a free agent or remain in Philly with a players’ option worth $35.6 million.
In December, ESPN reported that Harden was considering a return to the Houston Rockets next season. After Sunday’s loss to the Celtics, Harden was noncommittal about where hopes to play next season.
“I haven’t even thought about it,” Harden told reporters.
Here are the remaining contracts for the Sixers, according to Sportrac:
Danuel House and Montrezl Harrell also have player options for next year — House for $4.3 million, and Harrell for $2.7 million.
Georges Niang, Jalen McDaniels, and Shake Milton enter the offseason as unrestricted free agents.
Sixers coach Doc Rivers has two years remaining on the five-year, $40 million contract he signed in 2020.
— Rob Tornoe
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith: James Harden should shave off his beard
// Timestamp 05/15/23 8:30am
Following the Sixers’ blowout loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Sunday, ESPN host Stephen A. Smith had a suggestion for James Harden: shave off the beard.
“James Harden was so awful, so bad, he should actually shave his beard so he can hide his identity,” Smith said following the game. “That’s how bad he was. It was really, really bad. I say that in all seriousness. I’m not joking.”
“I worked in Philadelphia for 17 years. It was that bad. I’m telling you, it would be difficult for him to walk the streets,” Smith added. “You don’t do what you saw him do on Sunday afternoon in a Game 7.”
Harden had just nine point on 3-for-11 shooting in the loss, while committing five turnovers. Harden didn’t score a single point in the fourth quarter of the Sixers final three playoff games, according to StatMuse, which is actually worse that the player he replaced in Philadelphia.
— Rob Tornoe
Sixers head coach Doc Rivers might be on the hot seat
// Timestamp 05/15/23 7:20am
Is this all Doc Rivers’ fault?
Sometime soon, the 76ers coach will learn his fate with the team. Rivers has two seasons left on the five-year, $80-million deal he signed October 2020.
But Rivers is receiving a lot of the blame for the Sixers’ 112-88 Game 7 loss to the Boston Celtics Sunday in the Eastern Conference semifinals at TD Garden. It marked the third consecutive season that Rivers’ squad has suffered a second-round postseason exit.
They lost in seven games in 2021 to the Atlanta Hawks before losing in six games last season to the Miami Heat.
But, on paper, this season’s team had a chance to compete for an NBA title. Yet they looked like a squad that quit in the second half Sunday. They appeared clueless and lacked effort and mental toughness.
Those things and an inability to get out of the second round were the reasons the Sixers fired Brett Brown as coach in August of 2020.
Under Rivers, the Sixers clinched the 2021 Eastern Conference regular-season title. Their 54-28 record this season was their best mark since going 56-26. And Joel Embiid’s game has improved each year under Rivers, leading his becoming this season’s league MVP.
But the Sixers hired Rivers to get them at least beyond the second round. And that hasn’t happened.
Could Sunday’s Game 7 loss to Boston be Doc Rivers’ last as Sixers’ coach?
— Keith Pompey
Joel Embiid’s historic collapse in the playoffs
// Timestamp 05/15/23 7:10am
Joel Embiid criticized over postgame comments
// Timestamp 05/15/23 7:05am
Joel Embiid scored just 15 points in the Sixers’ Game 7 loss to the Celtics. His teammate, James Harden, finished the loss with just nine points. Combined, the duo shot just 8-for-29 from the court and committed nine turnovers.
After the game, Embiid took blame for the loss several times, telling reporters, “I gotta be better.” But his comments about Harden and himself not being able to “win alone” garnered an outsized response on social media.
“Me and James, we can’t win alone. That’s why basketball is played five-on-five,” Embiid told reporters following the loss. “We need everybody to find ways to be better.”
Here’s the full context of Embiid’s quote:
Even taking what he said in context, Embiid’s comments about Harden and himself not being able to win alone were widely criticized and mocked on social media following the loss, both inside and outside the sports media world.
“This is ridiculous. He and Harden played terribly. The supporting cast wasn’t the problem,” wrote Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski.
“Joel Embiid throwing his teammates under the bus after disappearing at the end of Game 6 then going 5/18 in Game 7 was true MVP level stuff,” wrote The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor.
“Odd thing to say after a Game 7, where Embiid and Harden were the 3rd and 5th highest scorers on their team,” wrote MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell.
— Rob Tornoe
JJ Redick takes a shot at Doc Rivers
// Timestamp 05/15/23 7:00am
Following the Sixers’ loss to the Celtics Sunday afternoon, ESPN analyst JJ Redick took a thinly-veiled show at head coach Doc River.
On Twitter Sunday night, the former Sixers sharpshooter and Toronto Raptors head coaching candidate wrote, “I wonder if they cooperated.”
The comment is in reference to something Rivers said on ESPN last month, when asked to compare the Sixers to other teams with star players he’s coached in the past, namely the Los Angeles Clippers and the Boston Celtics.
“Not trying to take anything away from that [Los Angeles Clippers] team. That team was never going to win when you look back at it,” Rivers told Malika Andrews on ESPN’s NBA Today in April. “We just didn’t get along well enough as a group and you can’t win without cooperation.”
Prior to signing with the Sixers in 2017, Redick spent four years on the Clippers, all of which Rivers coached. During his seven-year tenure in Los Angeles, the Clippers never made it past the second round of the playoffs.
Naturally, Redick hasn’t taken too kindly to his former coach’s remarks.
“Everybody I’ve talked to about it has kind of owned their own mistakes, if that makes sense, and realizes, especially later on, that we still could have had something special,” Redick said on his podcast, The Old Man and the Three, in April. “And to not get any of that accountability from him … And the interesting part, too, is he’s talked about players getting along, and was brought in … as a personality manager, Ubuntu, and all that stuff.”
“And he was the GM.” Ridick added. “So, if people weren’t getting along, I don’t know, it’s kind of on you.”
— Rob Tornoe
Eastern and Western Conference finals set
// Timestamp 05/15/23 6:45am
With the Sixers’ loss on Sunday, both the Eastern and Western Conference finals are now set. Here are the complete schedules:
Eastern Conference finals
Western Conference finals
* — If needed
— Rob Tornoe
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