During the slowest part of the NBA offseason, where virtually nothing interesting happens in the league, James Harden stole all the headlines earlier this week by publicly bashing Philadelphia 76ers executive Daryl Morey for being a “liar” while at an Adidas event in China.
Ahead of Harden making this very public statement, a report dropped over the weekend about the 76ers ending trade talks with the Los Angeles Clippers and any other teams interested in the superstar guard’s services.
This is likely the reason for the outburst by Harden, who is usually quite stoic and doesn’t make a spectacle out of himself publicly outside of some wild outfits he sometimes wears.
As if that wasn’t big enough news in Philadelphia, reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid wiped his social media accounts of any affiliation with the 76ers, which has the league buzzing about him potentially wanting to be traded.
Although Embiid has been the talk of the NBA over the past couple of days, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne isn’t buying it, as she believes the superstar center is trolling everyone to get a laugh, via 97.5 The Fanatic.
“He is happy to be a Sixer. I don’t think this is a precursor to something. I think this is Joel Troel.” – @ramonashelburne on Embiid changing his Twitter bio
— 975TheFanatic (@975TheFanatic) August 16, 2023
With Embiid being infamous for his troll tactics and never really taking anything too seriously outside of wanting to win basketball games, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Shelburne is right on the money that he’s just having a bit of fun in a less-than-stellar situation in Philadelphia.
Until Embiid comes out and says he’s joking, we’ll never know what his true intentions are because not many people would blame him at this point for being sick of dealing with everything that comes with playing for the 76ers franchise.
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