f lipped Simmons to Brooklyn in a package for All-Star
guard James Harden.
Embiid has not spoken to Simmons. Not since the
trade. Not substantially in the months before, either.
Simmons was around the team facility but, says Embiid,
“We never saw him.” Embiid says he still doesn’t know
what drove Simmons away. Someday, he hopes to. “I
don’t have any hard feelings,” he says. “I don’t have any
hate toward him. I wouldn’t mind being friends. That’s
just me. I don’t care. Honestly. I respect the decision he
made. I think it’s unfortunate what happened, but to
me it’s whatever.”I
T SEEMED LIKE a softball: Is this your best chance
to win a championship? Why wouldn’t it be? On paper,
the Sixers are loaded. Harden, the former MVP, is an
elite scorer, who, with Embiid, creates the NBA’s most
dynamic pick-and-roll combination. After years of shuf-
f ling through All-Star teammates, Harden has described
the f it next to Embiid as “perfect.” Tyrese Maxey, who slid
into Simmons’s starting spot, had a breakout sophomoreseason as a sweet-shooting point guard. Tobias Harris,
perhaps miscast as a No. 2 scoring option last season,
is now overqualified as a fourth. Thybulle ranks among
the NBA’s best perimeter defenders. Yet when posed the
question, Embiid demurs. “I can’t really answer that,”
he says. “Because I felt the same way with the previous
teams that we had because I believe in myself and the
team so much. And even looking back, I still believe
that if everybody would’ve played at their potential last
year, we could have made at least the conference finals.”
A title matters to Embiid. “I won’t stop until I win one
for this city,” he says. Winning MVP, though, matterstoo. “I never thought I’d be at this level,” he says. Last
summer a clip circulated of a teenage Embiid, still in
high school, catching an outlet pass, taking one dribble,
elevating...and finding himself behind the backboard.
At Kansas, he asked to be redshirted before what turned
out to be his only season. When pro scouts projected him
as the top pick, he told them he wasn’t ready. When he
got to the NBA the only award he was interested in was
Defensive Player of the Year.
Now Embiid sees MVP and the Sixers’ success as being
linked. “Let’s say I average 35 points on a bad team,”
he says. “I can’t be the MVP of the league, because I’m
not winning.” Legacy matters to Embiid even more
since he became a father. His son, Arthur, was born in- Occasionally, he sees traits of his brother in his
toddler. “The energy, how he’s always smiling, joyful,
the attitude,” says Embiid. “And he likes to be bossy.” He
doesn’t want Arthur to play basketball. “Soccer,” Embiid
says. But he wants Arthur to look up to his father, like
Embiid looked up to his. “My dad was really good at
handball,” he says. “And I used to be like, ‘Wow, I want
to be that good. I want to be better than him.’ That’s
how I want my son to think about it.
“I want him to see his dad play at the highest level.”
As the van pulls up to Embiid’s Beverly Hills hotel,
the topic again turns to his future. “I still don’t have
something that I’m really passionate about,” he says. “At
this point of my life, I wouldn’t do anything just to do
it. I would do it if I love it. I’m blessed enough and I’m
lucky that I’ve made enough. So to me it’s all about the
joy, and if I don’t like it, then there’s no point in doing it.”
Fortunately, there is plenty of time to figure it out.
Besides, he’s got more pressing things on his mind.SPORTS
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“I DON’T HAVE ANY HARD FEELINGS,”
SAYS EMBIID OF SIMMONS.
“I DON’T HAVE ANY HATE TOWARD HIM.I WOULDN’T
MIND BEING
FRIENDS.”