Mike Is Beyond Frustrated With the Current State of the 76ers | The Mike Missanelli Show

Mike Is Beyond Frustrated With the Current State of the 76ers | The Mike Missanelli Show

Today a major talking point will be about a story on the ESPN website on Joel Embiid. It’s a long story. It goes into many chapters of his life. It goes into many parts of his head. It goes into many areas of the Sixers and what they may or may not have done to facilitate and help this guy be a superstar player. Uh my take right out of the shoot is this. It is more woe is me for Joel Embiid. Um, everybody else is to blame. Not really me. I’ve been mistreated. Blah blah blah blah blah. It goes on and on. I don’t know like who was behind this story. Whose idea was it? Whether it was the Joel Embiid camp that initiated a story like this, whether it was the Sixer. I I don’t know. I don’t care whether it was Embiid. He seemed reluctant to want to do the interview. if you read the piece that the writer thought he was going to get, you know, shown out of his house before the interview even started. Uh, but if you haven’t read it, you got to read it and you got to have have your own conclusions about it. I I really listen, it was a well-written piece. It went on forever. And, uh, well, piece goes on forever. There’s usually a point to it. Uh, I don’t know really what the focus on what this writer wanted to bring out uh, on the story, what his point was. Uh but um Joel rambled on and some of the stuff was really interesting. Uh particularly the the parts where he addresses the the perceptions that people have of him at this point. Uh and one of the perceptions is um Joel’s lazy. He doesn’t care. And he says to that, I still see a lot of people bring it up talking about the silly stuff I used to do as a kid. Just my second, third year in the league. I started playing basketball at 16. You would not be in this position by being lazy, starting so much later than anybody else, having to learn the game at the rapid late rate that I did, coming to a new country, not knowing the language, learning a different culture, adjusting, being by yourself. That would not happen if you were not focused. Well, he’s not wrong about that. But we’re talking about his focus later on. his focus to be a great player later on, which to me includes being in tip-top shape all the time, which I don’t believe he was. So, I’m not talking about the stuff he used to do as a kid when he started playing basketball at 16. I’m talking about in in the in the really good parts of his career, what could have been better for Joel Embiid. And I look at it and I go, “Okay, I I know you’ve had to suffer through these injuries. A lot of these injuries maybe were attributable that you weren’t in the shape you could have been in. And so now what am I supposed to think? I’m supposed to feel sorry for you. I I don’t All right, here’s the other perception. Joel makes excuses. He says this. It’s not making excuses. When you’re hurt every year and everybody knows it, it’s the truth.” Now, do you believe if he was 100% does he have what it takes to have a chance at winning? I think a lot of people believe that because I’ve shown it in the regular season when I was healthy. All right. Again, we’re missing the point here. We’re missing the point of of were you in enough good shape to stay healthy? I think when people think of Embiid, they think of that part of it. And there are perceptions that go on and on and on. And every one of them he seems to be making an excuse for for the criticism that comes his way. There is always a reason for it. And I go, “All right, maybe maybe not. I I I the one thing that I w wanted you to be was to be great. And sometimes I didn’t think you wanted to be great enough. Sometimes I thought you wanted you thought you were great enough and that was all you had to do.” And that’s my problem with Joel Embiid. And so right now, frankly, I am exhausted by the Joel Embiid thing that we still have to go through this year after year, game after game. Uh he’s not ready to for basketball uh uh uh full-time activities on a basketball court already. We’re going to start a season with the same thing we started with last year. And it exhausts me thinking about the Sixers. Ray Dunn, you read the story. What were your perceptions? I took away a lot of what we haven’t seen from Embiid before in just the sense of like who he is behind the scenes and what it takes behind the scenes for him. When you say you’re exhausted by the experience, I think when we had the medical update this week about Paul George, we talked about the the here and now with the 76ers, it is an exhausting trade that I feel like we keep going through. But the thing I keep coming back to it, and you mentioned it a couple times there about his own fault in the injuries and staying in shape and all these things, the end of this right now is his knee getting fallen on in Golden State. Like that’s the injury right now that he rehabs to get back from to try and get in that Knicks series where he’s playing on basically one leg gets the Bells policy and they get eliminated in the first round cuz he rushed to come back and he wasn’t like he scored 34 a game. I mean, he had the 50-point game, but Embiid, you saw in that series, I think late in those games, you could see the way he was laboring in the story. Batum’s telling you how much he was laboring uh through that series. Like, for everything that the Embiid experience was, I think we reached the end here in an unfortunate way. Like I and if it’s not the end, I will be proven wrong because I think a lot of us look at this and say, “Okay, the 34 points in 33 minutes or 35 points in 34 minutes that he was before the the knee gets fallen on in Golden State, that guy, it’s hard to imagine him getting back to that level. But for a lot of this, he is culpable in part of what he has not accomplished.” But I think there’s way more to this story than the people that just look at this and say, “It’s Embiid throwing his hands up and saying, “I tried my best.” like I I think legitimately the guy has fallen into some horrible luck at the NBA. He’s got a very interesting life story. I I get it. Um and and and I think he is so in his own head that he can’t break out of it, you know, and and he is used to making excuses for himself. Uh I really do believe that. It’s like here here’s another perception in this story. says Joel is talented, but he doesn’t have the extra intangible stuff it takes to lead. So that’s brought up to him and he says, “Well, no one is a winner till they’ve done it.” I’m fine with that narrative because I haven’t done it. Charles Barkley, great player, right? But he never won. Iverson never won. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t great. They were amazing. Everyone leads in his own way. I lead on the court. Over the years, you also grow and you learn a lot. If you ask my teammates now, they’ll tell you in a a way different story than my teammates a couple years ago because years ago, I was nowhere to be found. Why? I don’t know. I think it goes back to how I was raised. I don’t want to say lonely, but when I came to the States, I was alone. I was always taught not to trust anybody. You have to trust your freaking teammates. Are you going to go back to an old perception that you don’t trust anybody and that’s why you you you your teammates, you shrink in front of your teammates? I like he he makes excuses all the time and I’m just tired of it. And now we’ve reached the end of it because we’re never going to see the the best MB. We’ve seen the best MB and so we have to go through another season suffering through this. It’s hard to suffer through a season. 6106320975. The Mike Minelli show. I’m going to say talk about something that I heard on the morning show today about how we we need to enjoy this season um for reasons that are unclear to me. I don’t know why I have to enjoy this season. It’s the same old thing. It’s the same old angst. I got to address one more thing that that I heard on the morning show. Uh I believe it was uttered by I I call him pie in the sky Connor Connor Thomas. Pie pie in the sky. Everything’s the wonderment of Connor Thomas. And uh he said something like, “Well, I’m going to look at this season like we’re going to enjoy enjoy the season. We’re going to enjoy the, you know, looking at, you know, some some of the guys on this team and and their and their growth and all that.” And I go, “How in the world how in the world do you enjoy a season that is going to be completely weighed down still by by the two aged stars who the team’s fortune depends on? How could how do you enjoy a see like you can enjoy a season where a team is young and growing into something and maybe they’re not a contender and you can follow their progress. That’s enjoyable. You can enjoy a team that was led by one superstar and four role players and that was the that that the head coach coached the Jesus out of them with the Iverson team and Larry Brown. You can enjoy that kind of a team. How do you enjoy this kind of a team where it’s the tired narrative of the two agent stars who we don’t know can get on the court or not? Again, we’re going to go through this again. The future depends on it and and and uh we can no longer depend on them. Uh, what’s fun about that? What what what’s enjoyable from game to game about that? That we’re going to see Jared McCain sometimes make some shots that we’re going to see VJ Edgeham dunk. They’re still going to be weighed down by this this complete nonsense of these two agent stars who were brought here to play together so they could be a contender. We’re going to enjoy watching this team, not depend on those older guys again as they drift down in an East that’s supposed to be open. I don’t get it. What’s enjoyable about that about the entire team experience? Yeah. What’s enjoyable about from game to game following the Philadelphia 76ers this year when the same narrative applies? Will Embiid play? Will Paul George play? Well, together will they be a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a duo that that can win like we already know the answer to that. So what’s enjoyable about it? And I can’t speak necessarily to exactly Conor’s line of thinking on this thing. If he’s kind If he’s looking at it as a Oh, I’m excited to see what McCain could turn into. I’m excited to see Edgecom out there. I’m excited for everybody’s favorite. Oh yeah. I forgot about him. to like see how that back court start Grimes for those that don’t get the reference here. But for how those guys gel on the back court like I can understand someone being excited to see those players specifically. I’m not telling you that you should have championship excitement that you should be throwing your money down on them to win. Isn’t that the whole point? What what other point do you have? Unless you think you can be a contender with this particular group I’m talking about that if Embiid and George weren’t here, then it may be enjoyable to watch the growth of young players who aren’t going to contend for a championship. This team is not going to contend for a championship with supposed star players on it. What’s fun about that? Well, I feel like we’ve all reset the expectation for this group, right? I mean, do you think this is a contending group? There are a lot of people that that still have this this genie in a bottle perception that, oh, if MB can stay healthy and and and George can stay healthy, they could be a pretty good team because the East is wide open. That perception is out there and and game after game, we’re going to have to suffer through the same narrative that we suffered through last year. Boy, could these guys play together? Are they going to recover? Are they going to be hurt? Are they not going to play? Are they going to play? It’s the same thing. So, if his thought process is he’s excited to see them compete, then I’m totally against him on that one. Well, that’s what he’s saying, that they’re going to compete, then yeah, then in that case, that that line of thinking to me is is way too optimistic. If his point is, hey, I want to see what Jared McCain is. I want to see what Edgecom is. I want to see what that back court’s going to be. That’s the only thing getting me going for for basketball season. That’s the only thing that’s got me like, you know what, but when they lace him up with that with that, they are still bogged down by the other thing. If the other thing was removed, then you could have more fun. Well, yeah, but I’m not, again, I’m not expecting to have championship level fun. I’m not expecting second round level fun at this point. It’s There are a lot of people that do expect that. And my my point is they’re going to get slapped down again from one side of the face to the other. How many people expect them to be there? It’s right. You hear the people. Well, if they can stay healthy, you never know if can stay healthy and George can stay healthy. Wow. Who has a duo like that? You’re hearing that? We You hear that from some of our own people in this building? Yeah. I guess Billy C’s thrown that around. Billy basketball. Oh jeez. We went from Billy baseball to Billy basketball now. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess I the sentiment is there from some people. Maybe I’ve just thrown it out as such a non possibility that I’m not letting myself even start to feel the excitement because usually I mean I’m the glass is always half full with me. You know, I like to look forward to things. What I’m looking forward to with this team is not competing. Like, I can’t even be that optimistic. I can’t even talk myself into that reality. I’d love to delude myself into thinking they’re going to compete. I don’t need optimism. I need misery. But that’s what I’m saying. You don’t understand. I need misery. The misery is the message to management. If I’m miserable, that should tell you, I think, where most of the population’s at. I find myself miserable. The optimism is like they they they got away with a bank robbery. If you’re optimistic, like this, they they messed this thing up. so much that any optimism put puts coins in their in their jar. And what I’m telling you is that if I’m not optimistic, I feel like I am usually on that whole curve of optimism. I’m usually furthest towards optimistic. If I’ve found misery, I think a lot of this fan base has found misery because me personally, I’m usually the last one off the Titanic when it’s going down. I’m like, the music sounds good. This is a nice ship. I’m having a good time. Like, I would be one of the last ones out. So, if I’m out, I can imagine most of the population I hate the fact that I have to follow this team this year. I hate it. I really do because I I because you’re going to be faced with the same misery and agony that you faced you were faced with last year with guys being load managed, guys being pulled out of the lineup, guys missing weeks at a time because of injury. The same old thing. And it didn’t change one iota. In fact, the same management team that messed this whole thing up is still there. And you didn’t even have a coach. Like I I I think about the the Iverson team that you had a coach that made that brilliant. You don’t have a coach that can make anything about this thing brilliant. 6106320975. We’ll get to our text after this. Thanks for watching. I love these outro videos cuz I can actually talk with my hands and it looks normal here. So, subscribe right here and watch some more videos for us. How about it?

Mike Miss reacts to an article from ESPN about Joel Embiid, and what he expects from the Philadelphia 76ers moving forward.

**** Catch “Kincade and Salciunas” Weekdays 6AM – 10AM | “Mike Missanelli Show” Weekdays 10am-2pm LIVE right here on 97.5 The Fanatic’s YouTube Channel! ****

#eagles #sixers #Phillies #flyers #philly #philadelphia #sports #talk #radio #espn #football #basketball #baseball #hockey #nfl #nba #nhl #mlb #thefanatic

Thumbnail: (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)