PHILADELPHIA — Joel Embiid is no Joe Namath. For that matter, Mark Messier.
After guaranteeing the 76ers would bounce back to win the first round series against the Knicks after losing Game 2, Embiid had to watch that vow backfire.
His season ended with a 118-115 loss in Game 6 at Wells Fargo Center.
“It’s disappointing to lose,” Embiid said. “The goal is to win a championship. Whenever that doesn’t happen, that’s all I care about. I don’t care if we made it to the second round. It doesn’t mean anything to me. We just didn’t achieve what we wanted to do. And the point is, we believed in ourselves so much that we actually believed we could win. I didn’t go.
“There were a lot of different situations. … I’ve got to get better as a basketball player. I’ve got to get better, starting with myself. I could have played the whole series better. Maybe I If I had been better, I could have won, so that’s on me. That’s why we lost. So find a way to get better as a basketball player, as a person, as a leader, and come back. , just hope everything else goes well.”
The 76ers missed the Eastern Conference Finals for the 23rd consecutive year.
But after advancing to the second round in five of their final six games, they fired Doc Rivers and hired Nick Nurse to get over the hump. Instead, they lost in the first round.
That was despite Tyrese Maxey winning the NBA Most Valuable Player award last week and Embiid returning from knee surgery with a strong series.
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Embiid finished with 39 points and 13 rebounds, even though he clearly wasn’t at his best.
“Man, never give up. You’ve got to stick to your goals,” Embiid said. “That’s right, you can’t feel sorry for yourself. Even if you can play and jump even a little bit and stay on the floor, even if you can’t jump, even if you can’t move as you want, even if your body is broken, you’re still alive.” I feel like it’s not enough. It doesn’t react the way it should. But I just love playing.
“I was hoping to come back this year and maybe I could have taken more time to heal and get myself back together. But the fact is… [Maxey] He’s on the team and I’ve known him for a long time, so I felt like I didn’t want to give that up. I wanted the opportunity to be on this stage and be a part of it. And I didn’t want to let him down, and I didn’t want to let the whole team down either. ”
Embiid also gave props to 76ers fans for their support in the final game of the season after criticizing them in Game 4.
“The fans were great tonight. Obviously it jumped on us. They ran away. But this is a run game,” Embiid said. “We made our run successful and the fans responded.”
