handball, his father’s game. “I was in a bad place,” says
Embiid. “And that’s when all the stories were coming out
every single day. ‘Oh, Joel, he doesn’t want to work. He’s
a bust. He’s never going to play.’ There was all this bad
stuff. And then you add my loss.” Embiid’s voice trails
off. “People don’t understand the human side of all of
it,” he says. “But I never complain about it. We make a
lot of money. [Criticism] comes with it.”
In the weeks that followed the Sixers’ playoff exit,
Embiid figured temperatures would cool. Only they
didn’t. Reports trickled out about Simmons’s unhappi-
ness in Philadelphia. About how he wanted a fresh start.
About how, according to The Athletic, Simmons believed
his partnership with Embiid had “run its course.”
Embiid saw all of it. “I read everything,” he says. He
believed most of it. “I was pissed off. There were so many
times that I thought I’d really lose it.”
The Sixers did, too. “Joel will say what he thinks some-
times,” says Rivers. But he didn’t. As much as he likes
being in the loop, he never pressured Philadelphia’s
front office because, says Embiid, “I don’t want to be
responsible for any decisions that were made.” At the
Sixers’ home opener, Embiid addressed the crowd before
the game and encouraged fans to support Simmons.
When asked during the season whether there was any
urgency to get something for Simmons, Embiid reiterated
repeatedly that he believed in the current roster—and
that if Simmons wanted to join it, he would be welcomed
back. “I can’t imagine the pressure he had individually
because he was linked to it the most,” says Rivers. “He
handled it like an absolute pro.”
Embiid’s motivations were simple. Lashing
out at Simmons had no value. “He’s no dummy,”
says Sixers swingman Danny Green, who has
been a part of three championship teams dur-
ing his 13-year career. “He knows he needs
people.” For months, Embiid believed Simmons
would return. “He was losing a lot of money,”
says Embiid. “At some point I started to feel
bad for him.” Moreover, Embiid—who not only
lived through The Process, but also took it as
his nickname—has zero interest in amassing
more draft capital or winning a title a few years
down the road. “I’m trying to win a champi-
onship,” he says. “Whatever gets me the best
chance to win a championship, that’s what I’m
going to do. We needed to help him as much as
possible. If he comes back, we got to take him
back and try to go win a championship. If he
still wants to get traded, we got to do whatever
is necessary to make sure that we don’t go and
trade for, I don’t know, a first-round pick, or a
second-round pick, or whatever, because what
does that do for me? I’m not going to be able
to work with a bunch of first-round picks or
second-round picks. So, to me, I always looked
at the bigger picture.”
Months passed. Simmons showed no interest
in returning. Morey, with Embiid’s support,
steadfastly refused to trade him for anything
less than a superstar in return. In the locker
room, though, morale was plummeting. Rivers
says things were hard. “The guys were just
over it,” he says. “We were winning games,
and, every town we went to, we were talk-
ing about Ben. I don’t know if we could have
gotten through the second half of the season
with that hanging over our heads. I was pray-
ing something happened.” In February, hours
before the trade deadline, it did. PhiladelphiaJOEL EMBIIDSHOOTING STAR
Embiid once again showed himself
to be a threat from long range.