Sixers star Joel Embiid gives his reaction to not wanting Tyronn Lue report
The Philadelphia 76ers are trying their best to prepare for the 2020-21 NBA season under a new coach, a brand new front office regime, and a new supporting cast around their star duo.
Instead, they are left answering to trade rumors surrounding Ben Simmons and Houston Rockets superstar James Harden and now Joel Embiid has been involved in a report that he did not want the Sixers to hire Tyronn Lue as coach. The reason being that he did not want the Sixers to hire “Simmons’ guy” due to his connection with super-agent Rich Paul who represents Simmons.
“You got to control, what you can,” Embiid said when asked about the report. “I just try to come in every single day and do my job. These guys have put a lot of trust in me to make it happen. Those types of decisions, I’m not a GM, I’m not in the front office so that has nothing to do with me.”
Being the best player on the team, Embiid will certainly have a say in any personnel moves the team makes. That happens with any franchise in this league. The decision will ultimately come down to the front office, but a team’s best player will certainly have a say in any decisions that happen.
The team ultimately decided to hire Doc Rivers who appears to have everybody’s attention right now.
“I’ve always told them that they got to do whatever is best for the team so if they thought Doc was the right coach for us, then, I trust them,” Embiid continued. “If they didn’t think any of the other candidates were not the right choice for us, then I trust them. I’m sure that they did the background check.”
Along with Rivers and Lue, the Sixers had a few other candidates. One of them was Dave Joerger who ended up joining the team as an assistant coach and another was Mike D’Antoni who was an assistant in Philadelphia under Brett Brown in the past. Any of the candidates would have been solid choices at the outset.
“All I’ll say is that we had a lot of great candidates, all of them are great,” Embiid continued. “Ty, he’s won a championship. I think we were looking at Mike D’Antoni who was an assistant coach with us and then Doc came in the picture so I thought the choice they made could have gone either way. Either of them would have been great for the same.”
At the end of the day, general manager Elton Brand and the rest of the front office came to a final decision on Rivers. At this point, the big fella has no other choice than to accept their choice and move on. Rivers is a highly respected coach in this business and he seems to be getting through to the players.
“The owners and EB, Daryl (Morey) wasn’t here yet, they went with Doc and I thought it was a good choice,” the big man finished. “That’s all I say, but reports are going to be reports so I can only control what I can.”
The team must now turn their attention to Wednesday and prepare for the Washington Wizards in the opener.
