76ers – Page 2 – Syndication Server

The NBA’s stars coming to James Harden’s defense is a lesson we should all learn from

James Harden is getting a little help from his friends in the Daryl Morey situation.

This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Mike Sykes.

I’ll be the first person to tell you that James Harden bears some of the blame for his tiff with Daryl Morey. He made his bed and now he has to lie in it.

Harden is the one who chose to take a pay cut so the team could land a few more players that might help the 76ers get to the promised land. He’s the one who flirted with the Houston Rockets all season. He’s the one who opted into his contract in a situation he very clearly doesn’t want to be in anymore.

Both sides are at fault here. Did Morey lie to him? Probably. But if Harden plays better in the playoffs, he’s probably got the deal he wants right now.

With that said, it’s nice to see so many of Harden’s peers defending him over the last few days.

PJ Tucker dropped a post on Instagram indicating that he’s siding with Harden in the situation. His former Nets teammate Kyrie Irving even defended him in a response to Adrian Wojnarowski’s tweet about the Harden situation, arguing that the 76ers star shouldn’t be called “disgruntled.” Andre Iguodala argued the same thing on Gilbert Arenas’ podcast.

Whether Harden has some culpability in the situation doesn’t matter to them. These players are defending him anyway. These players are saying exactly what they should say. They should be defending him.

This is a lesson in solidarity from the NBA’s top class. It’s something I think all of us could learn from.

For example, just look at the NFL’s running back situation. The league’s best ball-carriers don’t feel like they’re being paid enough and it’s hard to argue with them.

The value they bring to the offensive side of the ball in the NFL is tremendous. Yet these backs are typically paid like the least valuable position on the field because of how replaceable they are. That’s not to say a good running back is easy to find, but it is way easier to stumble upon a good RB than a good quarterback.

But maybe if one of the NFL’s top stars like, say, Patrick Mahomes or Aaron Rodgers sat in on that Zoom call between the league’s top running backs then it’d have been taken a little more seriously. Maybe it wouldn’t have changed anything in the immediate future, but it certainly would’ve at least sent a message to the top of the league that these players are sticking together. That’s going to matter come 2030 when the NFL’s CBA expires.

These players, across all their different sports, have to be there to help each other. Tucker, Iguodala and Irving know that anyone in the league could be in Harden’s situation.

Maybe the numbers aren’t as gaudy for everyone, but that’s not just what this is about. In its simplest form, this is just a player trying to work himself into the most favorable position possible. Every player should support that.

The only thing that could potentially change that is public pressure. The NBA’s stars are applying it. Good on them for it.

Quick hits: Mrs. Met got y’all acting weird online … Improving the USWNT … and more

— Mrs. Met got the internet all steamy and lusty on a Wednesday. What a time to be alive. Mary Clarke has more.

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That’s all, folks. Be kind to one another today.

Joel Embiid has 76ers fans panicking after he removed “Processing…” and his Philadelphia location from his Twitter bio

Joel Embiid knows exactly what he’s doing to 76ers fans with this.

Joel Embiid has chilled out on his trolling these days. But when he gets back into that bag, he certainly knows all the right buttons to push.

The Sixers’ star has fans in a frenzy right now and all he did was do a little light editing on his Twitter — er, uh, X — account.

Fans are already a bit tense because of the James Harden situation. He’s calling Daryl Morey a liar in public and very clearly doesn’t want to be in Philadelphia anymore. The Sixers are basically going into the season down a star.

But, now, Embiid also seems to be fanning the flames. The MVP removed “Processing…” from his Twitter bio and also deleted the Philadelphia, PA location that has always been attached to his 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

Embiid removed “Processing…” and the location “Philadelphia, PA” from his Twitter bio pic.twitter.com/P1dBLLtckf

— Sean Barnard (@Sean_Barnard1) August 15, 2023

Joel Embiid removed “PROCESSING…” and the location “Philadelphia, PA” from his twitter bio 👀 pic.twitter.com/IwTcsZI6Pz

— BrickMuse (@BrickMuse) August 15, 2023

Of course, this could be much to do about nothing. But we’re also talking about Joel “Troel” Embiid. This dude is extremely online. He knows exactly what simple gestures like these do to people.

Add in the fact that he’s also said that he wouldn’t mind winning a championship in Philadelphia or somewhere else and, yeah, the simple change to the Twitter bio becomes that much more unsettling for 76ers fans.

They don’t know what to make of it, really, so they’re just panicking at this point. It’s rough out here.

The winners (Lakers) and losers (what in the world are the Rockets doing?) of NBA free agency after one day

Here are the teams who made it out the best and worst from day one of NBA free agency

NBA Free Agency has barely just started and we’ve already seen a ton of deals pour in.

A big story so far is that most teams have been able to find ways to retain their big-named free agent talent that hit the market this offseason. However, there are some players who’ve managed to find new homes and some teams that have been able to fill a few gaps here and there because of it.

There are also plenty of big moves left to be made. Will James Harden be on the move? Will Damian Lillard ultimately choose to stay put in Portland?

Those are the things we’re still waiting to find out. Until then, here are the winners and losers from the opening day of NBA Free Agency.

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NBA fans were so annoyed by TNT using a drone camera for the 76ers – Celtics game

The drone coverage was fun, but also kind of annoying.

If you think you saw a drone on Wednesday night during the 76ers-Celtics game, relax. You’re not tripping. You definitely did.

TNT decided to use a drone to cover the broadcast of the game. Periodically, in the broadcast, it was announced that it was their drone. But it was still pretty weird to see it flying around like that.

Warner Bros. Discovery Sports — which is the parent company of TNT — has been testing and incorporating drone technology into some of the company’s bigger broadcasts like the All-Star game and the men’s Final Four, according to The Morning Consult‘s Mark Burns.

Regarding TNT's use of drone technology for live coverage of Celtics-76ers, source familiar w/ situation says Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (TNT/TBS) has been testing in-arena drone use and recently incorporated the tech into NBA All Star along with the men's Final Four in…

— Mark J. Burns (@markjburns88) May 4, 2023

This seems like something we’ll probably see periodically throughout the NBA playoffs. The drone is providing a unique coverage angle for fans to watch from.

Here’s a look at it. Honestly, it doesn’t look too bad.

ROB WILLIAMS BLOCK ON THE DRONE CAMERA ANGLE pic.twitter.com/ptOuGy27yj

— Pull up shoot (@NElGHT_) May 4, 2023

While the footage looked cool, the drone was also in the way. The thing flies right in the middle of the regular broadcast.

There is a drone spotted in the middle of the Celtics-76ers game 👀 pic.twitter.com/fM4qRJnIq1

— Ahn Fire Digital (@AhnFireDigital) May 4, 2023

So you can see why people were so annoyed with this thing. It’s quite literally in the way of their basketball. Fans seemed to be out on the drone just as quickly as it came in.

James Harden’s wild flare pants got him completely roasted by NBA fans ahead of Game 4 against the Nets

James Harden’s pants are about to sweep the Brooklyn Nets. Literally.

When 76ers fans asked for James Harden to give them a sweep, they didn’t mean with his pants.

I’m not sure if Harden got the message, though. This man wore the absolute baggiest flare leather pants when he walked into the arena for Game 4 against the Nets.

These have got to be the wildest pants, man. Surely, they’re designer — that’s basically all James Harden wears these days. But they’re also just…weird. They’re not parachute pants because they’re slim in the thigh area. But once you get down to the calf? Whew. The fabric is abundant.

This man looks visibly uncomfortable walking in these joints. I know this cannot feel right at all.

.@JHarden13 in the building 💯

Sixers-Nets tips off at 1 PM ET on TNT! pic.twitter.com/0xshkeuBiN

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 22, 2023

NBA fans refused to let Harden live this down. They totally roasted my guy. And, honestly, I can’t blame them.

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NBA players are partially to blame for officials taking over the playoffs

Draymond Green, James Harden and the rest of the players need to chill with the wild fouls

This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Mike Sykes.

Everyone loves the physicality that comes with playoff basketball. The game gets a little rougher. Buckets aren’t as easy to come by and it makes the stakes feel like they’re raised just a tad bit.

That’s why the flagrant fouls that we’ve seen so far in these playoffs have been so annoying.

Already, we’ve seen not one, but two flagrant 2 fouls called on different players in just one week of playoff action. There’s the one on Draymond Green from The Stomp. The latest one, though, is an incidental jab to the groin from James Harden.

That last one is particularly bothersome because, earlier in the same game, Joel Embiid intentionally kicked Nic Claxton in the groin after the Nets’ big man stepped over him. He wasn’t ejected, though. Claxton actually received a technical and later was ejected from the game after getting another technical for taunting.

There’s a clear inconsistency there. But that’s not the bothersome part of all this. Really, it’s this stat from ESPN’s Kevin Pelton.

“Typically, flagrant 2 fouls are rare. Just 14 of them were called during the entire 2022-23 NBA regular season, or an average of one every 88 games. To have two of them during the first 17 games of the playoffs inevitably stands out by contrast.”

What’s more, there were only three flagrant 2 fouls called during the 2021-22 NBA playoffs. Already, through just one week of action, we’re on the cusp of eclipsing that. That’s not good.

A lot of people blame officials for this and, on a certain level, that’s understandable. Especially when you look at the inconsistency we saw in the Claxton situation.

But, at the same time, the players have to bear some of the blame here, too.

After all, it’s Draymond Green who skipped off of Domantas Sabonis’ chest and clicked his heels together like he was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. It was James Harden who was too excessive in his nudge to Royce O’Neale without paying attention to what he was nudging.

Would it be nice to see more leeway? Sure. Especially so in Hadren’s case. But, at the same time, it’d also be great to not see players put themselves in these situations.

Hopefully, we don’t see a lot more of this in these playoffs. But considering how things are going so far, I won’t hold my breath.

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— Mookie Betts went from sleeping in a hospital chair after the birth of his son to playing a position he hasn’t played in over a decade and absolutely crushing it. The GOAT.

—Steph Curry seems like a great teammate. He still rides for Draymond Green.

— Elon Musk is really out here paying for LeBron James’ blue check. What a loser.

— Here are the best spots for a Shohei Ohtani trade if it happens. And it’s going to happen. Sorry, Angels fans.