Joel Embiid Says He Hopes Sixers and James Harden’s Clippers Meet in Finals

Center Joel Embiid spoke about James Harden‘s time with the Sixers, indicating they did all they could to give Harden the ball and let him do his thing.

“In my opinion, I just feel like we allowed him to be himself and we gave him the ball every single possession because he is really good,” Embiid told reporters. “I mean, he’s an amazing player. Obviously, being that great of a passer, I think we just gave him the ball. If you watch again, we gave him the ball every single possession to just go out and do his thing and from there, he had to make decisions as far as getting guys open or looking out for himself. But I thought it did a pretty good job of just getting us into an offense, and not just passing the ball, getting guys open.”

Embiid added he wished the Sixers could have gotten further in the playoffs before all the drama — which resulted in Harden being traded to the Clippers as part of a multiplayer deal.

“I mean, I’m happy that the situation got resolved and I’m happy for him,” Embiid said. “He wanted it to happen. But it’s all business. I’m happy for him. I hope he has the chance to succeed and make a lot of money and play good basketball and is able to win. Now, I hope we both make the Finals but, you know, he’s on the losing side of it and we’re on the winning side of it. But I’m just, like I said, I’m happy for him. He got what he wanted.

“Unfortunately, there was a lot of misunderstanding between people that were mentioned but it’s always good to see people happy and he seems to be happy.”