After a loss to the Miami Heat on Nov. 18, the Philadelphia 76ers held a team meeting that head coach Nick Nurse later described as “brutally honest.”
The loss had dropped the 76ers to 2-11, and the hope was likely that the meeting was going to set things straight and put Philadelphia on track to turn its season around.
However, on Nov. 19, details of the meeting were leaked, something that caused a real stir for the 76ers. Now, information is coming out about the impact of the leak on Philly the locker room.
“That was supposed to be it,” wrote ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. “Air was cleared, words were said. But the next morning, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on the details of the meeting, further exacerbating the tension and lack of trust in the locker room, sources said.”
Charania’s reporting revealed that during the meeting, star guard Tyrese Maxey called out star big man and close friend Joel Embiid for frequently being late to things.
Charania’s reporting also revealed that players told Nurse they wanted to be “coached harder,” and coaches said they wanted players to “practice with purpose and attention to detail.”
The leak also divulged that Embiid — who did accept the messages from the meeting — expressed being “sometimes confused about what the 76ers are attempting to execute on the court.”
It’s unclear how the details of the meeting reached Charania, but it clearly caused some added drama for the 76ers. Embiid was upset following the leak. He called whoever leaked the details a “real piece of s—.”
Now, Philly appears to be dealing with a locker room that is in need of repair, and the team’s recent results likely haven’t done much to fix anything. The 76ers have gone 1-2 since the meeting and lost to the Los Angeles Clippers by 26 in their last game.
The squad is just 3-13 on the season thanks to a wide variety of issues, with availability woes being near or at the top of the list. There is only one team in the Eastern Conference (the Washington Wizards) with a worse record than the 76ers going into NBA action on Wednesday.
Philadelphia has quite a mess to clean up, and it’s going to take a lot of work for the team to get its season back on the rails.
