Joel Embiid upset with Round 1 loss to Knicks, excited for Sixers' future
May 2, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Kelly Oubre Jr. (9) reacts in front of New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) after his dunk during the second half of game six of the first round for the 2024 NBA playoffs at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers had their season end in tough fashion after a Game 6 loss to the New York Knicks on Thursday. The loss ended an exciting series where the final point differential was only plus-one in favor of New York. Every game came down to the wire.
With that being said, the Sixers did come up short. This is the seventh consecutive season that Philadelphia failed to advance past Round 2 in the Joel Embiid era and now it’s back to the drawing board.
Yes, the Sixers were the No. 7 seed. Yes, Embiid was on one leg and half his face was hurt due to the Bell’s Palsy, but Philadelphia had its chances. It just couldn’t come away with the wins.
“I mean, it sucks to lose,” said Embiid. “The goal is to win a championship. Anytime that doesn’t happen, that’s all I care about. I don’t care if I got to the second round. That does not mean anything to me. We just didn’t accomplish what we wanted to. The thing is we believe in ourselves so much that we believe we actually could’ve won it, but everything didn’t go the way we wanted it to. We had a lot of different circumstances.”
Of course, it didn’t help that Embiid was once again dealing with physical ailments that limited him in the playoffs.
“It’s also exciting to look at the future, to look at what’s in front of you, but it’s also easier said than done,” the big fella continued. “We’ve got to be better as basketball players. I’ve got to be better. Starting with myself, the whole series I could’ve been better. Maybe if I was better, we would’ve won it, so that’s on me. That’s why we lost. Just got to find a way to get better as a basketball player, as a person, as a leader and come back and hope that everything else aligns.”
With that being said, the future seems as bright as ever. Tyrese Maxey has morphed into a legitimate star in this league and is somebody who can continue to grow beside Embiid. Philadelphia is armed with a ton of cap space and will likely bring in another star next to those two to compete in the East.
“When you look at it, it kind of looks exciting,” the reigning league MVP continued. “I don’t know what they’re going to do, but they do have a lot of cap space and picks so they have the opportunity to build something good, but then again, who’s going to be available, whether it’s in free agency or trades? You can have all that stuff, but you’ve also got to be lucky that something comes up.”
Embiid isn’t wrong. Just because the Sixers have a ton of cap space doesn’t mean that they are going to get the pieces they want. It will come down to making smart decisions and he knows and understands that.
“That’s a great position to be in,” he added. “You’ve got a young superstar coming in (Maxey), face of the franchise for his whole career in Philly. That’s exciting. Trying to build something great here. Like I said, I love our guys. I love the guys that we have, but we’ve just got to make sure we work on ourselves and come back better as basketball players.”
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Joel Embiid upset with Round 1 loss to Knicks, excited for Sixers’ future