Joel Embiid didn’t need long to address the rumor that briefly had his name at the center of a messy bit of preseason noise.
After the 76ers faced the Brooklyn Nets, Embiid pushed back on the report that LeBron James had called him out for being late to practice. James already said the story was false, and Embiid echoed that sentiment while stressing that Philadelphia has to stay locked in on itself.
“It sucks, but what can you do? It's unfortunate,” Embiid said via ESPN's Dave McMenamin.
“I don't know where that came from. It never happened.
… I think we just got to focus on ourselves. There's going to be a lot of outside noise to pull us apart from what we're supposed to be and what we're supposed to accomplish.
So, it's important that we stay together and we keep our [head] down.”
The rumor traces back to the 76ers’ preseason opener against the New York Knicks, when Mike Breen said in the fourth quarter that he had heard James was upset with Embiid for showing up a few minutes late to the practice court. Breen later apologized for passing along the claim, especially after James said it wasn’t true.
Embiid said he couldn’t make sense of how something like that gets started, though he also suggested being who he is makes him a natural target.
“Those type of things, I can't understand,” Embiid said. “One, it is not true, but then again, it's like, ‘Why me?'
… I guess I'm Joel Embiid. I've been in that situation.
I don't usually talk when it comes to those [rumors]. So, it feels like I'm an easy target.
“But yeah, as long as we know who we are [we will be OK] and we just got to stick together.”
With so many stars on the 76ers, Embiid knows there will be more chatter coming their way this season.
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