Joel Embiid has been perfectly aware of how the scope in which the Philadelphia 76ers have been seen through for the last few years has changed after their sudden success, winning 52 games in the regular season and breezing through the first round of the playoffs, now with a chance to claim supremacy in the Eastern Conference.
“Three to four years ago, no one was around,” said Embiid. “No one was talking about us. Anything that always comes up, it's like ‘oh, that's nice' but where was everybody three to four years ago?”
#Sixers @JoelEmbiid on the national hype his squad is now receiving: “Three , four years ago, no one was around. No one was talking about us.” pic.twitter.com/JnDYt8ALx3
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) May 3, 2018
Embiid is figuring out the nature of the NBA and its coverage. Relevant teams will get press and attention, while underperforming, non-playoff teams will be viewed as more of an afterthought by the national media.
But the 7-footer is using this as fuel to prove his doubters wrong, admittedly holding those grudges and channelling them into performances like the one he put in Game 1 against the Boston Celtics, all 31 points and 13 rebounds' worth of Cameroonian fury.
“I hold grudges because before, three to four years ago, we were the laughing stock of the whole NBA,” said Embiid. “Now that we're here everybody is talking about us.”
#Sixers center @joelEmbiid on holding grudges: pic.twitter.com/neLWTQNjxR
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) May 3, 2018
In true Mike Jones fashion, Embiid's rhetoric sings “Back then h**s didn't know me, now I'm hot, h**s all on me.”
The Sixers center will likely benefit from a four-day break from Game 1 to Game 2, hoping to match or break his playoff career-high in scoring and help his team even up the series as it turns back to the Wells Fargo Center over the weekend.
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