Let's talk about this Celtics sixers. Series sixers were a cute story. They were, They really were. They made it seven games. It really was never in doubt. They had the potential to send the Boston Celtics home in six They had four minutes where all of a sudden they allowed Jason Tatum to go nuclear and it pretty much was a rap ever since. Right, Like even the most diehard Philly fan, if you're honest with yourself, if you're a dieard Philly fan, you're probably not even listening because
you probably hate my guts. But were you confident heading into game seven? Like, were you were you even like having a modicum of you know, excitement about going in to TD Garden on that parquet floor and thinking you were gonna beat Jason Tatum who had just come alive and found his mote again like he was Angela Bassett and Stella got her groove back, like no, if you say yes, you're a liar, you are. History of course was against you. Uh, Doc Rivers record in game seven's
they speak for themselves. I don't think he's won. I don't think he's won a Game seven in his career as a head coach, which is crazy. Momentum was against you. Uh, you know what else? The universe seemed to be against you because you had not one, but two superstars, both together have had well documented playoff struggles. Maybe not put those two guys together right, like, maybe you want to balance it out. How could you possibly have thought that this was gonna go any other way than the way
that it did. Insanity? What do they say? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. It is Doc Rivers coughing up Lee in the playoffs. It is James Harden underperforming in the playoffs. It is Joelle Embiid being injured over and over in the playoffs. Wash rintse try repeat, wash rents dry. That's them, that's them. We keep trying to say, oh, maybe twenty twenty three will be different, Maybe twenty twenty four will be different,
maybe twenty twenty five will be different. At a certain point, we just got to accept reality. Move on. This version of the Sixers is not working. And you know what's wild is that the Sacramento Kings, a team that's been regarded as a poverty franchise for many years now, a team that has been you know shit on by the national media. A team that really has just been like the laughing stock of the league until this year. They have been to the conference finals more recently than the
Philadelphia seventy six ers. I don't mean that it is sad in a trolling way. I mean it, and it is a very sad thing that a got I like Joel Embiid has not been to anywhere close to the place that the Sacramento Kings have been in. And that's saying something like, I don't know how this team stays together honestly moving forward. The process. I've said it once, I've said it twice, I've said it three times. The
process is dead. The process has been dead. We're trying to put it back together like operation, and it's just not working. We're trying to revive it with those two little paddles with the electrical current on them. It's no, it's dead. It's dead. Fifty one points by Tatum and the Game seven route a destruction, an embarrassment, or, as Embiid and Jannis both like to say, steps to success. How bad is it? How bad is it right now?
It is so bad that you have Ben Simmons on his Instagram from his living room with a glass of red wine, taking a photo of the Sixers getting blown out by the Celtics by thirty and just posting it no context, just like yeah, like they are just enjoying it, you know what I mean? He red wine, a beautiful living room and a photo of the TV of the Sixers getting destroyed in a game seven. Yeah, that's how bad it is. He is loving that, And that is the sad truth that Philly fans woke up to today.
No more excuses. You don't have any other scapegoat left, Not even Ben Simmons can wash away the stink of this epic failure of a team. It is their third straight loss in the conference. Semis you ad Joe l Mbid the MVP. It is the year for him to show out the stats in this series. Twenty two points, nine rebounds and two assists. That's disgusting. That is garbage efficiency numbers also terrible, forty two percent from the floor.
He shot twenty percent from three getting absolutely locked up by a man who has his AARP card in Al Horford. Al Horford on Joel Embiid. Remember when PJ. Tucker said no one on the planet can stop joelmb when he's aggressive. Turns out, forty year old Al Horford can stop Joel Embiid. Harden roller coaster ride had a couple of insane vintage performances,
which we've already talked about. But overall during the series, he's averaged twenty two points per game, forty two percent from the floor and thirty four percent from three And if you want to talk about comparisons to Ben Simmons, in the last three games of this series, Harden had no points in the fourth quarter in all of those three games combined, none, zero, zilch. He went zero for six in the fourth quarter of games seven, six, and five.
In fact, Ben Simmons had more points than James Harden in fourth quarter in that Hawk series where he basically ended his career right then and there, five points, all free throes. And so now where are we at. The rumors are that James Harden is itching to get back to Houston. He has a house there, he's there, and every off day he's got a restaurant there, beautiful, very luscious. In one of those Fois Gras wrapped steak lobster deals, you know, that kind of a deal. There's a lot
of strip clubs there. I'm sure he loves he loves Houston. Now im Udoka is there? Another rumor is also floating around that Harden may be going to Phoenix, you know where the rumors are not that he's coming back to Philadelphia, Like, I don't hear any rumors of Harden excited to return back with Darryl Morey and Doc Rivers. Harden was asked after the game and a scrum, Hey, what's your relationship like with Doc? And what did Harden say? Did he reap like praise? Oh, I love Doc. We've got a
strong relationship. So good? He said, Uh, it's okay and just left it at that. Does that inspire confidence? Is that a ringing endorsement for Doc? No? What did Doc say about James? He said, I think overall he enjoyed being here. When you got to add an overall to it, that means there were some places he did not enjoy it. He said. You know, it's tough for him. We asked him to play a little different than he's always been accustomed to. I think it made us a better team.
But unfortunately, I thought for James at times it wasn't always best for him, but he still did it. And you know, we appreciate that as a coach. You know who didn't appreciate it probably James Harden. He probably didn't appreciate it at all. Back to what I said before, no excuses. You don't lose because hard and went to Brickville in the fourth quarter. You didn't lose because Embiid settled for mid range jumpers instead of attacking the rim.
You didn't lose because Embiid was hurt for yet another playoff series. The Sixers didn't lose because Doc Rivers continued to freeze in a big moment. The Sixers lost because of all these things combined. There's not one person or one thing to point the finger at. They lost because this team was never as good as anyone thought that they were. And that goes all away from Darryl Moury down to Doc Rivers, to players like Embiid to Harden, to role players who are overpaid like Tobias Harris and
George Yang and Tyrese Maxey and PJ. Tucker and all of them, and everyone all of them. The question is not how to tweak this roster and fix it. The structure is broken. I think we now know major changes need to happen in order for them to figure out a path forward over and above where they've continuously been and hit their ceiling on the glass ceiling is obviously there. They can't get to the com Diference finals, So how do you do that? Who do you keep? How do
you build a team around them? Because ten years in the process has told you that this team is no better than a second round exit. So that's if you aspire to more need to change it. You've got to make radical changes that this franchise has avoided for a decade. What does that mean if you're honest, If you're honest, who's the major trade piece that you have and you can get a lot for Well, you know, Harden's a free agent, so it's not him. Tobias Harris is overpaid,
so it's not him. Tyree Maxi's very young and very cheap, so you could probably get something back for him. But if we're really honest, the only real trade chip that this team has is Joel Embiid. That is a tough pill to swallow. And do you trust Joel Embiid to be healthy enough to build a winning team around him? The answer is maybe not. He's one of the best players in the NBA. But if you look at his numbers, he's missed on average twenty three regular season games per
year during his career. That is not counting the full two seasons that he missed with his foot injury. When you miss thirty percent of the regular season every year, like just you can just like book that you can just just pen it in not even pencil, you can just pen that in. Uh. And that's not even the full story. Like when Joel Embiid's not missing thirty percent of a regular season, he's also nursing injuries from missing
multiple games in the regular season. So, given that he's almost thirty, he's had numerous health issues, is there a greater or lesser chance that he's gonna miss more or less time in the future. Probably more. And then second, given the health concerns, do you think you can build a championship team around him? The answer is probably know. If you can't answer yes to both of those or either of those, then the sad and painful truth is
you probably have to move on from Joel Embiid. I love MPI, I think he's one of the most dominant players in the NBA. I think he could be a really great pairing for another player like I don't know Damian Lillard. That's just me, very unbiased fans take but in what postseason has Joel and beat ever been healthy? Can you recall one? I'll answer for you. Never, literally never.
When he got drafted multiple years he missed. Remember just like total seasons twenty eighteen, his first playoffs, fractured orbital bone, twenty nineteen, playoffs, knee injury, twenty twenty, ankle injury twenty twenty one, torn meniscus, this is all playoffs twenty twenty two, as you remember, fractured horrible bone this year twenty twenty
three playoffs, sprained LCL. That is literally insane. So if he's your all NBA guy and you can't rely on him, is he the star of a championship team or is he a really really really really really good role player who can drop forty at any time. Now, with the rumors that James Harden is on his way to Houston, Doc Rivers might have coached his last game in Philly. This team is at a crossroads. It will be very fascinating to see which correction they go next