Culture Change In Locker Room Should Be Attributed To Embiid, Not New Front Office

Joel Embiid is the leading face of the culture change for the Philadelphia 76ers, not the front office.

Over the past few weeks, in regards to this Philadelphia 76ers team, we have seen the national narrative do a complete 180.

Since the beginning of what has been locally and now nationally donned as “The Process” in 2013, very little was reported on a national spectrum about our beloved 76ers. What was reported was overwhelmingly negative.

“Sam Hinkie is destroying this franchise”, “this is a team trying to lose”, and who could forget about our “losing culture.”

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Wednesday night, the most unlikely of heroes, T.J. McConnell sunk a baseline jumper to seal thrilling home victory over the collapsing New York Knicks. This shot capped a game in which the Sixers were trailing by ten points with two minutes left. Suddenly, the reports weren’t all bad around the league. In fact, all Sixers talk the next day was good Sixers talk.

Joel Embiid has shown his face (well, voice) all over the national sports media scene as of late; doing interviews on ESPN Radio’s Dan LeBatard Show in which he introduced to a national audience his not so secret crush, Shirley Temples; while remaining quiet about the secret celeb who promised him a date should he earn a coveted starting spot in the NBA All-Star Game.

JoJo also did an interview Thursday morning on Dan Patrick’s radio show only to leave them uncertain as to whether the Sixers center slain a lion at the age of six to prove his manhood in his native country of Cameroon.

Embiid also earned comparisons to Shaq from Max Kellerman on ESPN’s First Take. When ESPN’s new NBA program The Jump’s Rachel Nichols spoke of the Sixers, she spoke of how this team’s turn around could be attributed to new management’s focus on building a “winning culture.” I’m sure if watching from a distance, this sentiment would widely be accepted as truth, but not here in Philadelphia. We in Philly know exactly why this team has become a team again, it has nothing to do with a new look front office, his name is Joel “The Process” Embiid.

Sixers fans know that this team’s turn around did not just start when T.J. McConnell sank a walk-off jumper over Carmelo Anthony. No, this team’s turn around came early fall, October 4th, to be exact. On October 4th 2016, Joel Embiid logged his first NBA minutes. A preseason game, and only 13 minutes, but it happened. After 948 days of time off, it happened.

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A lot happened in the time period that Joel sat, anxiously awaiting his chance to make a splash on basketball’s biggest stage. The team tallied up almost 140 losses, Sixers President and General Manager Sam Hinkie resigned, and JoJo himself was busy becoming an internet sensation (see his Twitter and Instagram feeds). Most of all, an entire fan base awaited the debut of a 7-2, 270 pound athletic specimen from Africa to take the floor in their beloved red, white and blue.

Joel hasn’t wasted much time letting his on court impact be felt around the league. Embiid’s first season has been limited, quite literally. While in only 25.1 minutes per game, he has averaged 19.4 points, 7.5 rebound and 2.3 blocks. Following JoJo’s lead, the Sixers have already surpassed last season’s win tally in less than half that time.

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Oh, and let’s not forget what the future holds. The 2016 NBA Draft’s No. 1 overall pick, Ben Simmons, is seemingly a short period of time away from making his respective debut. Simmons and Embiid, not Colangelo and Colangelo, are exactly the two names that Philadelphia has been waiting for to shift this culture and turn the Sixers in to contenders for years to come. Hold your heads high, Sixers fans, better days are upon us and great things are yet to come.