His 39 points and 13 rebounds in Game 6 were not enough, and as a symbol, OG Anunoby came to crush him in “money time”. Despite a broken knee, then the beginnings of facial paralysis, Joel Embiid will have given everything. But once again, he will not win the title, and since his arrival in the NBA, the 2023 MVP has still not made it past the conference semi-finals. Moreover, its franchise has not reached a conference final for… 23 years!
“It sucks to lose!” The goal is to win a title. Whenever it doesn't, that's the only thing that matters.” reacts the All-Star pivot. “I don’t care about reaching the second round. That doesn't matter to me. We just didn't reach our goal. The fact is that we believed in ourselves so much that we really thought we would win. Everything didn’t go as we wanted.”
Progress as a leader
The Sixers' season started in the worst possible way with the James Harden soap opera, then Joel Embiid's injury reduced the good first part of the season to nothing. And finally, here they are already out after trying to make up for lost time for three weeks.
“I have to improve as a basketball player. I have to do better, and so it starts with me” continues Joel Embiid. “Throughout the series, I could have played better. Maybe if I had played better we would have won, so it's my fault. That's why we lost. So I have to find a way to improve as a basketball player, as a person, as a leader, and come back and hope everything else lines up. »
Don't let Tyrese Maxey down
For Joel Embiid, his mere presence, even diminished, was essential. And then, he didn't want to let his team, and Tyrese Maxey, down. For the pivot, his young teammate is today in the “Top 10 best NBA players”.
“As long as I can play and jump, even just a little bit, and I can be on the court, I feel like my presence is enough. Even if I can't jump or move the way I want, or my body doesn't react the way it should. But I like to play » he concludes. “I could have taken more time to heal and come back. But the fact that Maxey was on the team and I had known him for a long time, I didn't want to give it up. I wanted the opportunity to be on the field and participate. I didn't want to disappoint him, or the whole team. »
