Joel Embiid has many talents, but concealing his true feelings does not appear to be one of them. To take just one example: this old expression of his true feelings and this recent attempt at concealment. Today the Sixers leader is doing his best to perform public support of his beleaguered teammate Ben Simmons, who just announced, from the trading block on which he has languished for several months, that he would really like to be traded. Embiid's last reserve of respect for Simmons appeared to go up in smoke the moment Simmons turned down this dunk. This did not stop the big man from claiming that he loves playing with Ben.
Sources “Trust me bro”!! Stop using my name to push people’s agendas. I love and hate drama. I love playing with Ben. Stats don’t lie. He’s an amazing player and we all didn’t get the job done. It’s on me personally. I hope everyone is back cuz we know we’re good enough to win https://t.co/1kq9VI9byE
— Joel “Troel” Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) September 1, 2021
He kept it up for another tweet.
From my own experience, y’all have no idea how much this media makes up stuff for followers and shame on you for believing them.
— Joel “Troel” Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) September 1, 2021
And began drifting away by the third.
I haven’t forgotten but 2 years ago, I got booed, people in Philly wanted me to be traded. I even shushed them. Only the real ones didn’t but I just put the work in that offseason to be better cuz I knew I wasn’t playing up to my potential. Philly fans, y’all also gotta be better
— Joel “Troel” Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) September 1, 2021
Probably if I was mounting a public defense of Ben Simmons I would not call attention to just how much I'd added to my own game during offseasons, or conclude it with the phrase "but not everyone is built like that."
For clarity, I love the criticism, I love when I’m told I can’t do something. It makes me work harder to prove everyone wrong but not everyone is built like that.
— Joel “Troel” Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) September 1, 2021
At least Simmons got 40 minutes of goodwill from his soon-to-be-ex-teammate. That's probably better treatment than Andre Drummond got.
