Speaker 1: This podcast is part of the seventy Sixers podcast network
Speaker 1: search seventy Sixers Insiders wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to another edition of the seventy Sixers Insiders podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Rosen here with another one on one interview
Speaker 1: today with the big fella, Joel Embiid. I got to
Speaker 1: catch up with Joel on media Day about his offseason,
Speaker 1: his motivation for the season ahead, his relationships with his teammates,
Speaker 1: and more. It was a pleasure, as always to hear
Speaker 1: what's going on in the mind of one of the
Speaker 1: smartest players in this league, one of the best players
Speaker 1: in this league, one of the funniest players in this league. So,
Speaker 1: without further ado, here's my conversation with Joel Embiid. Joel Embiid,
Speaker 1: It's wonderful to see you, Thank you for sitting down.
Speaker 1: Happy to have you back in Philly. How is your
Speaker 1: brain feeling headed into this season? You had the best
Speaker 1: season of your career last year, so what's motivating you
Speaker 1: to level up again this year? Oh? Women, Uh man,
Speaker 1: we didn't win anything, so I gotta be better. Uh
Speaker 1: you know, I gotta be better for my teammates. Uh
Speaker 1: you know, the coaches and the whole organization and the city.
Speaker 1: So you know, I gotta found ways to get better.
Speaker 1: You know. It's uh, you know, as you say season was,
Speaker 1: I was pretty okay last year, but I know I
Speaker 1: can't be way better than I was last year. I
Speaker 1: think there are a lot of Sixers fans that are
Speaker 1: going to be really happy to hear you classify last
Speaker 1: year as pretty okay because from where I was sitting,
Speaker 1: it was pretty excellent. And I know that you spend
Speaker 1: a lot of time tweaking your game, watching film, trying
Speaker 1: to make moves in the margins, right, So what did
Speaker 1: you spend the most time working on in this offseason.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest things, um that hopeing last year
Speaker 1: was you know, when I added you know, shooting off
Speaker 1: the dribble. That was a big part of you know,
Speaker 1: my my involution. So uh, this year, you know, I
Speaker 1: believe that you know, I should be I should be
Speaker 1: taking more threes. Uh, you know, I think he's gonna
Speaker 1: help the team even more. And then also, you know,
Speaker 1: the main thing that I really walked on it was
Speaker 1: off the drip of stuff, you know, because as you
Speaker 1: get into the playoffs and you know, passing first one
Speaker 1: and all that said, he becomes stuffing. You can't post
Speaker 1: up all the time. You gotta find different ways on
Speaker 1: how to score the basketball. So that's why we walked
Speaker 1: on this summer. You always say that your life is
Speaker 1: like a movie. So if you had to take us
Speaker 1: through to this point in the plot right now this year,
Speaker 1: what part of the movie are we in the movie? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm really starting to figure that WO like
Speaker 1: myself and who I am h you know, as a
Speaker 1: not necessarily as a basketball player, but you know as
Speaker 1: a man. Uh you know obviously you know my fan
Speaker 1: me which I love the most, uh you know in
Speaker 1: this war uh and you know and as a man,
Speaker 1: just you know the way I push um, what is
Speaker 1: business on my life? So I think you know a
Speaker 1: suppose you know, I'm really excited about you talk about
Speaker 1: how you approach your business and you approach your job.
Speaker 1: Someone who's impressed me the whole time that he's been
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia is Tobias And I talked to him a
Speaker 1: few minutes ago and he told me about how your
Speaker 1: relationship has changed since he got here to now when
Speaker 1: you guys really have a partnership and it seems like
Speaker 1: it's really grown. So how would you describe your relationship
Speaker 1: with Tobias and where it's headed. Oh yeah, man, when
Speaker 1: he came here, I didn't respect him. Just kidding, but
Speaker 1: uh no, He's a great guy, always has been, you know,
Speaker 1: class Uh, you know, extremely smart. Uh and obviously as
Speaker 1: the year, he takes a lot to earn my trust. Uh.
Speaker 1: So I will say I didn't open up at all,
Speaker 1: you know when he came and you know, when it
Speaker 1: was new. Uh, and you know it's the you know,
Speaker 1: this is the third year. Uh, you know, state years,
Speaker 1: you know go on, you know you kind of get
Speaker 1: to be around the guy and you kind of learned
Speaker 1: about you know, what it's about. And you know I
Speaker 1: is and he's a he's a great guy. What do
Speaker 1: you Because you and I have very different working relationships
Speaker 1: with Tobias. I respect him for a lot of things.
Speaker 1: But he carries himself, the way he talks to people,
Speaker 1: the way he works on the court, on his mental game.
Speaker 1: What do you respect about Tobias? I respect him from
Speaker 1: uh for being real. Uh you know, if that's something wrong,
Speaker 1: you will tell you. And I respect him. I think
Speaker 1: he's been loss of credit to him but he's been
Speaker 1: kind of about the glue of our team, you know,
Speaker 1: getting gods together and keeping gods together. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a leader in a way that you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out on the court and I'm gonna dominate,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna help us win games, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do my best and I'm gonna be like hump on
Speaker 1: my back and I got you. And then off the court,
Speaker 1: I'm more reserved, which you know, I've changed a lot too,
Speaker 1: and you know I've opened up, but it's still not
Speaker 1: as you know, as it does it. So, you know,
Speaker 1: like after the season ended, I you know, I thank
Speaker 1: I thanked him, you know, for you know, everything he's
Speaker 1: done and kind of keeping the team together. Some of
Speaker 1: those people that he's kept together are people like Matifs
Speaker 1: and fur Con and Shaken. Now, because you're sort of
Speaker 1: a veteran at this point, you've seen the entirety of
Speaker 1: those guys' careers. So what are you excited about most
Speaker 1: when you think of that group that used to sort
Speaker 1: of be the youngsters, but now they've had a few
Speaker 1: years in the league, what are you looking for out
Speaker 1: of them this year? As your teammates. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just looking. I'm excited, you know. Fuck, I just
Speaker 1: got paid and I told him he asked for my advice.
Speaker 1: I told him that I get the most money you can.
Speaker 1: Uh literally, So I'm glad it's back. Um, you know Shake,
Speaker 1: you know he has a chance to be to get
Speaker 1: paid too, you know. Um, and then Mattiss obviously. Uh.
Speaker 1: But the thing I always tell him is that it
Speaker 1: all goes back to winning, because if we win as
Speaker 1: a team, everybody wins. Like if we win, you know,
Speaker 1: everybody's gonna get paid. So um, you know, everybody's gonna
Speaker 1: get taken care of. And it's not so much about money.
Speaker 1: But I just think, you know, as man, Uh, you
Speaker 1: know that great guys, so you know smart, Uh, you
Speaker 1: know what, there's Matiss and you know, and I'm also
Speaker 1: excited to kind of be around the the all the guys,
Speaker 1: the young, the new guys and the young guys Matisse.
Speaker 1: When he played in the Olympics, you tweeted about it afterwards,
Speaker 1: and you tweet very selectively. You don't tweet about just everything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So why were you happy for him? Why did you
Speaker 1: want to support him? Did you watch this game? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll watch. I watched part every game was early in
Speaker 1: the morning, but you know, I like to sleep, but
Speaker 1: you know, I stayed up and you know, watch you know,
Speaker 1: most of the games, and I was I was pretty
Speaker 1: you know, excited about him because you know, the way
Speaker 1: he was shooting the ball. Obviously, we know what he
Speaker 1: is defensively, and I've told him several times that he
Speaker 1: has a chance to be, you know, the best defender
Speaker 1: on the planet and and win Defensive Player of the Year.
Speaker 1: But we know what he can do defensive and then offensively. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was just happy because it was somehow he just
Speaker 1: became a you know, I guess it's too walk stuff,
Speaker 1: but he just became a you know, better shooter. So
Speaker 1: I'm excited for him to kind of show this year.
Speaker 1: What did you think playing your first year with Doc Rivers?
Speaker 1: What are you looking forward to about continuing your partnership
Speaker 1: with Doc. Oh, he's been great. You know. Obviously the
Speaker 1: regular season was good and you know that UM as
Speaker 1: far as winning, UM, it wasn't there. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: we all could be better. Uh, you know, I can
Speaker 1: be better. Uh, he can be better as a coach
Speaker 1: and east coaching stuff. Could also be better. But I
Speaker 1: think he's I think he was great. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: he did a great job. This is a question that
Speaker 1: I've asked all your teammates. But if you look back
Speaker 1: at your younger self, maybe your fifteen year old self
Speaker 1: that was just starting to play this game, knowing where
Speaker 1: you've gotten to, now, what advice would you give to him? Well,
Speaker 1: my fifteen year old self was was getting ready to
Speaker 1: go to uh France to play volleyball. Uh, so I
Speaker 1: meant the advice I would get to him. It's that. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm glad he waited. I'm glad you know
Speaker 1: that I didn't happen at fifteen. I'm glad you know
Speaker 1: a few months later, Uh look, Balboulte, who I'm really tanked,
Speaker 1: thankful off you know, came back and how the camp
Speaker 1: and you know I was, you know, glad to be
Speaker 1: part of it. And even then I just I wasn't good,
Speaker 1: but he saw something in me, and you know it
Speaker 1: gave me the chance. So you know, looking back, I
Speaker 1: would just be you know, I would just be glad
Speaker 1: that you know that you want to be you know
Speaker 1: kinda yeah, waited just for a few more months until
Speaker 1: you know it turned sixteen. I'm glad that you waited
Speaker 1: and that you didn't take I'm glad too. I mean
Speaker 1: when you start thinking about, you know, the the lifestyle
Speaker 1: and you know it's completely different. I'm happy for you,
Speaker 1: especially signing that new contract. I have to ask about it,
Speaker 1: this commitment that you've made to the city. What are
Speaker 1: you so excited about about now you and Philly sort
Speaker 1: of have a long term future ahead of you. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm excited to continue on building, you know what we've
Speaker 1: been trying to. Obviously, he's gonna take more than me.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna need help, you know, I'm gonna need my
Speaker 1: teammates to help. But I believe we have that chance.
Speaker 1: And that's also a continuation to kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: keep the dream alive to retire here. But yeah, it
Speaker 1: is a continuation of, you know, keeping that goal alive
Speaker 1: to just play for one city. This is the last
Speaker 1: section that we talked about rapid fire. I'm gonna ask
Speaker 1: you a couple things. You're gonna tell me which of
Speaker 1: your teammates are most likely to do this thing, Which
Speaker 1: of your teammates are most on time? Yeah? Wow, I
Speaker 1: was mad at Tobias today was kind of late, so
Speaker 1: I was gonna say him, but I will say Maxie.
Speaker 1: Who's the best dancer? The best dancer? Yeah, probably a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago. I'll posted a picture of video
Speaker 1: of drumm and dancing for probably here. Who's the worst dancer? Um?
Speaker 1: Probably George. Who would you trust to cook you dinner
Speaker 1: on the team? None of them? I'm too picky. Who
Speaker 1: would you take a restaurant recommendation from? Who would you
Speaker 1: trust to help you get out of an escape room?
Speaker 1: I don't know because I would never do that. Who
Speaker 1: would you trust to babysit baby see my key? Yeah? Nobody? Okay?
Speaker 1: Who is the best like if you have an early
Speaker 1: work out, who's the biggest morning person? Who brings must
Speaker 1: joy in the morning? Boten Maxi because he's always, you know, early,
Speaker 1: the first one in and you know he's you know,
Speaker 1: he has a lot of energy. Always Smiley. Who's the
Speaker 1: grumpiest in the morning? But definitely me? I hate waking up.
Speaker 1: Who's the funniest funniest I used to be Um. I
Speaker 1: used to be Bobby Paul. Who's the nerdiest, the nerdiest? Matis?
Speaker 1: Who do you trust to pick the music when you
Speaker 1: guys are working out. Um, I would trust myself, but
Speaker 1: that wouldn't like it because I would just listen to
Speaker 1: French music. This is the last one. If you had
Speaker 1: to get one of your teammates to write a poem
Speaker 1: that would help emote something, get across some emotions, who's
Speaker 1: writing the poem? To Boss, Joel and b thank you
Speaker 1: so much for sitting down. This was great. Thank you guys,
Speaker 1: Thanks as always for listening to the seventy Sixers Insiders Podcast.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Joel Embiid for the time and the thoughtfulness.
Speaker 1: It was a pleasure to catch up with him. Make
Speaker 1: sure you're subscribed to the seventy Sixers Insiders Podcast if
Speaker 1: you are not already. We have more of these one
Speaker 1: on one interviews coming all week and then all season long.
Speaker 1: Also make sure you're subscribed to the seventy Sixers Scoop,
Speaker 1: which is where you can find a bite sized podcast
Speaker 1: updating you on seventy sixers activities as training camp continues.
Speaker 1: They're about three to five minutes, they're always informative. Will
Speaker 1: have those almost every day of training camp leading up
Speaker 1: to the season. So again, that's the seventy Sixers Scoop podcast.
Speaker 1: Thanks as always, for listening and we will talk to
Speaker 1: you soon.