Despite being in a tough spot, Philadelphia 76ers center Jahlil Okafor continues to handle himself extremely well in the public eye.
The Philadelphia 76ers are heading in the right direction. With Joel Embiid trending towards full health and the last two first overall picks set to join him next season, there’s a lot of positivity surrounding the team’s current situation. Not much is going wrong, and they’re finally in position to take the next step forward as a team.
Philadelphia 76ers
In the midst of all that positivity, however, lies Jahlil Okafor, who still feels like a lone entity on a team that doesn’t really fit him — much less need him. Stylistically, he’s a relic, while his production last season was far below any semblance of the expectations he had upon entering the league. He has been beat out of the rotation, and Sixers fans tend to be on the harsher side of analysis when it comes to Jah’s game.
It’s truly a weird spot, both for the organization and for Okafor. They made a concerted and publicized effort to get rid of him at the deadline, yet a multitude of deals that seemed almost inevitable at the time ended up falling through. He himself has been open about his situation as well, going as far as to say that he has thought about the possibility of joining other situations around the league.
Given the team’s overt efforts to move him, that’s understandable as well. There’s really no long term spot in Philadelphia when it comes to Okafor, and both sides have seemingly acknowledged that.
Yet even in that crappy situation, Okafor remains incredibly positive. He has the right mindset when speaking to the media, and has approached this offseason in a manner that suggests a continued commitment to improvement — something that would be easy for players in his situation to slack off on.
He has hit the gym particularly hard, trimming his weight from 270 to 260 pounds and going on a vegan diet. While he admitted that the latter portion was a difficult change, altering your diet — and cutting out meat — is probably a formidable task for the vast majority of the American population.
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One of the biggest knocks on Okafor during his time with the Sixers has been his conditioning. He hasn’t always looked the part of a prime NBA athlete, and that criticism is only validated when a player struggles defensively to the extent that Okafor has.
He also had this to say in a discussion with Tom Moore:
"“But when it comes to the NBA this is all I know is wearing a Sixers uniform, and the city’s been great to me, the coaches have been great to me, and my teammates have been great. So I couldn’t be happier” — Jahlil Okafor, via Tom Moore"
He continues to emphasize his happiness in Philadelphia, something that — for all the slack he gets from the fan base — is almost a surprise. He’s not a disruptive force in the locker room, and that’s one of the biggest positives you can draw from this entire situation. There are plenty of cases where a situation like Okafor’s leads to a burdensome relationship between the player and the team — and that hasn’t been the case with Jah.
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It’s been a difficult ride for Okafor, and the Sixers’ lack of a proper situation only provided a catalyst for his NBA downfall. But the simple fact that he hasn’t soured on the organization is a legitimate positive, and something worth noting as people needlessly slander somebody who continues to work his way towards improvement in the right way.