Following a pair of rousing wins to begin the season, the Philadelphia 76ers still do not have a blemish on their win-loss card. However, the campaign is way too young for that to hold much water, especially since as of writing, there are six other teams still touting undefeated records. Put simply, they are not special in that regard.
One team that has also remained unbeaten thus far is the Thunder. The defending champs have won all three of their games so far, with the first two of those coming in double overtime. As everyone expected, Oklahoma City has come out guns blazing to kick off its title defense despite the absence of Jalen Williams.
All credits go to reigning Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who has been unreal over three games. During that stretch, he has averaged 40 points, six rebounds, and five assists per outing.
However, most prominent during their first two games is the fact that he went to the charity stripe a ton. In their season-opener against the Rockets, he attempted 14 free-throws. More egregiously, in their Finals rematch against the shorthanded Pacers, he shot 26 free-throws, much to the chagrin of casual fans. He has attempted 40 free-throws during the first two games of the season, the most in NBA history for a single player in that span.
The double standard continues as SGA gets acclaim in area where Joel Embiid gets criticized
The cursory NBA fan you see on Twitter is probably not a fan of SGA shooting so many freebies, but most credentialed people in media circles are not. In fact, he is getting praises for his ability to sell contact thanks to his rim-driving, skipping past the blatant over-embellishment attendant in his theatrics.
Remember when Joel Embiid got blasted by nearly everyone for playing a physical, but smart brand of basketball? Funnily enough, no one really came to his defense that time but 76ers fans. Even media people were uber critical of him not solely relying on his strength and having to resort to drawing fouls despite him actually getting hacked. Someone said it best:
SGA is awesome, but it’s insane to me that he doesn’t get the same hate that Embiid does for getting to the freethrow line…
— Josh Reynolds (@JoshReynolds24) October 24, 2025
He just dropped 55 with 26 freethrow attempts & the timeline hasn’t made a peep…
Just goes to show what we already knew - Embiid slander gets the clicks
True enough, free-throw hate is only trendy when it is Joel Embiid in the middle of things. When it is the 76ers star doing the foul-drawing, even media people condemn him as much as they could. When it is SGA, the reflexive action is to come to his defense.
Now, how is that fair? Well, it is not. It is ridiculously hypocritical.