Roughly 24 hours after the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers pulled off the biggest trade of the season, swapping disgruntled superstars Ben Simmons and James Harden, the Sixers took on the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night. Philly didn’t have Harden available to suit up but provided the fans with a produced video of his highlights before showing him in a number one Sixers jersey to a standing ovation.
Philly, we go Hard(en). pic.twitter.com/hfjdxVmlSw
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) February 12, 2022
Joel Embiid had a chance to speak his thoughts on the trade after the Sixers took care of the Thunder for their 33rd win of the season via ESPN.
“Yeah, I’m happy that I’m not going to be answering any more questions about that subject,” Embiid said after finishing with 25 points and 19 rebounds in 35 minutes in a 100-87 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder at Wells Fargo Center Friday night. “It’s good that not just for me, but my teammates, the whole organization. The whole year, it was pretty annoying with the whole situation, but I’m glad that everybody has moved on.”
“I wish everybody the best in whatever they want to accomplish, but I’m focused on winning games here and trying to win a championship.”
💪 Joel Embiid was locked in on both ends of the floor for the @sixers in their win!@JoelEmbiid: 25 PTS, 19 REB, 4 AST, 5 BLK pic.twitter.com/n7JufVz5CH
— NBA (@NBA) February 12, 2022
Harden, who has missed several games due to a hamstring injury, is not expected to play Saturday against the Cleveland Cavaliers. That leaves only two games for Harden to play before the All-Star break, either against the Boston Celtics at home Tuesday or the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks.
But in true Troel fashion, he explained the tweet he sent out after the trade went down.
— Joel “Troel” Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) February 10, 2022
“Honestly, I don’t even know what the tweet was about,” Embiid said with a sly smile. “I just tweeted a random person. I just saw the picture on the internet, and I thought he was well dressed. He had a nice suit on, good looking, you know, he had some swag.”
“So I just thought it was a good picture.”
