The big talk around the Philadelphia 76ers right now is not the fact that they have won two games in a row following their four-game slide, it’s all about Joel Embiid antagonizing Sixers fans.
The Philadelphia fan base is passionate, it’s faithful, they love their teams, and if you don’t perform up to their standards, then they will let you know about it. That’s what happened on Sunday when the fans began booing superstar Joel Embiid for what they judged as subpar effort. Embiid then gave a hand gesture to quiet the home crowd and he appeared to yell something not too flattering as well.
Back at practice on Monday, coach Brett Brown gave his thoughts and reaction to the gesture.
“I’ll speak with Jo to learn what actually happened, but I think in general, it goes like this,” he prepared to say. “This city is a uniquely, aggressive city. Look at how they handle their stars from Carson Wentz to (Bryce) Harper to Joel Embiid, they’re on coaches and some of it is we just got to play better and we just got to coach better.”
The Sixers are undoubtedly still in the race for a championship in the Eastern Conference, but it has been an overall disappointing season. The team is currently sitting at the 5 seed in the East with 28 games left and that isn’t what people wanted to see coming out of this team. They expected a lot more and they have let the team know on several occasions.
“It’s the uniqueness of this city that makes it a competitively exciting job we have and a pretty cool city,” said Brown. “The Philly fans who have been here will always be here and have handled stuff in a way that I just said. You actually have to give them credit. Our dominant home-court record is also extended in part to the support that we get.”
#Sixers coach Brett Brown responds to @jonjohnsonwip’s question about #Sixers center Joel Embiid shushing and addressing the crowd during Sunday’s game vs. the #Bulls: pic.twitter.com/B9DVpEuEYX
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) February 10, 2020
Brown is no stranger to the ire of this city. The fans have let him know when they are not happy with his decisions so he has an idea of what Embiid is going through.
“I am the son of a coach,” he explained. “I’m not young, I’ve been here now for seven years, every one of my years I have been fire, and I come in and coach the team, try to help our players, try to be candid with everyone in front of me, and make sure that the program is coached with an element of integrity. I hope that we do is done with character and we have a mission to try and move this team forward and make a deep playoff run.”
Embiid is not the first Sixer to recently hush the Philadelphia faithful as Al Horford was the first one to do so on Friday against the Memphis Grizzlies. So, this is nothing new, but if the players want to get the fans of their back, they are going to have to perform up to their high level of standard. [lawrence-related id=25447,25435,25424]