How exactly did Amir Johnson and Joel Embiid think it would look if they checked text messages during a blowout playoff loss.
A picture says more than a thousand-word text message ever could.
Specifically, the image of Amir Johnson and Joel Embiid checking a phone on the Sixers bench in the middle of a blowout loss in the playoffs.
Don’t tell that to Johnson or Embiid, who couldn’t be bothered to worry about the game when there was pressing business to attend to.
https://twitter.com/ComplexSports/status/1117174920662986754
Doris Burke said it perfectly on the ESPN broadcast — it’s a bad look. We’ll wait to see how this series plays out before determining just how understated that ends up being.
Philadephia lost by nine points, but things were much dire for most of the game. Embiid, who probably shouldn’t have been playing, looked horrible on offense and wasn’t nearly the impact player Philly needed him to be. Johnson wasn’t even active, which makes his role in this even more bizarre.
After the game, Sixers head coach Brett Brown said, “It’s completely unacceptable…the club will deal with it,” per The Athletic’s Derek Bodner. However, Joel Embiid offered up that Johnson’s daughter was sick and that he was checking for updates on her. It doesn’t exactly excuse the incident, but it’s certainly better than sliding in someone’s DMs.
Embiid says that Amir Johnson's daughter was sick, and he was checking in on her during the game.
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) April 13, 2019
Jimmy Butler seemed to be the only Sixers star who showed up, which is going to fuel a separate drama-filled narrative that we can all look forward to in the near future.
There’s no other sport this could happen in other than basketball. It’s a hyperaware, ultra-meta league full of some of the juiciest pettiness you could ever dream of. In a league that never fails to give us memeable moments, the Sixers delivered in unimaginably perfect ways.
That’s about all they did on Saturday.