76ers Rumors: Joel Embiid ‘Furious’ After Locker Room Leak; Star Plans to Find Snitch | News, scores, highlights, stats and rumors

The Philadelphia 76ers called a players meeting on Monday night after a loss to the Miami Heat and news of it leaked to ESPN’s Shams Charania, who noted that Tyrese Maxey called out Joel Embiid, among others, for usually not reporting on time to team activities. .

And Embiid was not happy that the details of that meeting had been publicly leaked.

As NBA reporter Jake Fischer wrote, “So when ESPN reported details Tuesday morning, during the 76ers’ team meeting after Monday night’s blown lead in Miami, a league figure close to the All-Star center in Philadelphia told me, ‘Joel is going to be furious.’ And that Embiid would try to find the Sixers’ so-called traitor.

Embiid also spoke publicly about the situation.

“Whoever leaked that is a real piece of shit,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “But even then we talked about a lot of things. I don’t want to get into the details, but that whole thing probably lasted 30 seconds.”

But a combination of injuries, unfamiliarity and role players unable to pick up the slack — outside of rookie Jared McCain, who looked like a future star early this year — contributed to the nightmare start. It hasn’t helped that there have been off-court issues, like the leaked meeting or Embiid’s confrontation with a reporter in the locker room due to his dissatisfaction with a column that mentioned his family while questioning his professionalism.

“It’s kind of annoying having to deal with the same things over and over again,” Embiid told reporters. “All I’m trying to do is focus on basketball and being the best I can be for my family, both on and off the court. But for some reason it feels like negativity keeps following me around, and I understand not why. It’s a shame, but that doesn’t change the fact that we still have to perform better as a team. At the moment we don’t have much room for mistakes.”

The question now is simple: can the Sixers turn this tide? The only positive is that they still have 68 games to figure it out.