The Philadelphia 76ers have had a tumultuous offseason as a result of their current situation involving star guard James Harden. On Tuesday, star center Joel Embiid added more fuel to the fire when he removed Philadelphia as his official location on his Twitter account.
Normally I think this isn’t worth paying attention to at all but Joel Embiid is too online and calculated that I think it is worth mentioning
— Sean Barnard (@Sean_Barnard1) August 15, 2023
Embiid removed “Processing…” and the location “Philadelphia, PA” from his Twitter bio pic.twitter.com/P1dBLLtckf
In addition, Embiid's teammate, PJ Tucker, also appears to be siding with Harden in this situation. Tucker shared a photo of Harden and himself on his Instagram story and wrote "I'm not acrobatic, I'm not flippin' on my bros."
This comes after Harden called Sixers president Daryl Morey a "liar" on Monday, and stated that he "will never be a part of an organization that [Morey is] a part of" during a media event in China.
On Saturday, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the 76ers had decided to end trade talks involving and would move forward with bringing Harden to training camp this fall. According to The Athletic, Harden has no intention of reporting to training camp, and no longer wishes to play for the Sixers.
Earlier this offseason, Harden decided to opt into the final year of a two-year, $68.8 million contract that he signed last summer with Philadelphia. Harden opted in for the sole purpose of the Sixers finding a trading partner for his services.
Throughout the process, Harden has maintained that he prefers to be traded to the Clippers, but those trade talks "never got close," according to Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia.
When it comes to Embiid, it's unclear where exactly the Sixers star stands with the organization at the moment. In an interview with Maverick Carter last month, Embiid stated that he didn't know if he'd be chasing an NBA title in "Philly or elsewhere."
"I just want to win a championship, whatever it takes," Embiid said. "I don't know where that's going to be, whether it's Philly or elsewhere, I just want to have a chance. I want to see what it feels like to win that first one. It's not easy, but every single day I work towards it."
The Sixers haven't made it past the first round of the playoffs since Allen Iverson led the franchise to the NBA Finals in 2001, including six-straight early exits with Embiid leading the way. Philadelphia was eliminated by the Boston Celtics in the second round of the 2023 playoffs, despite Embiid averaging 25.5 points and nine rebounds in the series.
Embiid won the first league MVP award this past season after putting together averages of 27.2 points and 11.2 rebounds. In doing so, Embiid became the first Sixers player to win the award since Iverson took home the honor in 2000-01.
