The Philadelphia 76ers have been the most disappointing team in the NBA this season. Off court injuries and a dismal set of performances on the court have seen them in the midst of a nine-game losing streak. All of this has led to a 20-38 record, leaving the Sixers on the outside looking in even for a play-in spot.
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The struggles the Sixers have endured as a team, combined with Paul George’s injuries and difficulties on an individual level, led him to announcing a hiatus from his podcast, Podcast P with Paul George.
This allows him to focus his attention on “getting my body right, getting mentally right, and help this squad make a push towards our goal to finish the season and give ourselves a chance to be in contention to compete for a championship.”
‘Haterade’ is the drink of choice in the NBA, and the taps were flowing after this announcement. Many ridiculed George’s championship talk in the midst of Philly’s dispiritingly horrendous season.
Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson had mixed feelings about the announcement on their most recent Nightcap podcast.
“Everything is magnified when you’re losing,” Johnson said while wondering aloud if the pressure to shut down the podcast came from “inside the [Sixers’] house” as George and Philly have continued to play poorly.
Sharpe talked about how athletes will blame insignificant things for losing, such as sitting on their helmet in practice.
Likewise, they’ll credit any unrelated thing for helping them win, using an example of how he and his Denver Broncos teammates superstitiously wore the same suits throughout the playoffs on their way to winning the Super Bowl.
Will stopping his podcast help Paul George and the Sixers turn their season around?
Sharpe commended George for reading the room and stepping away, but he and Johnson were skeptical that this would help the Sixers get back into contention. Looking at it objectively, it’s hard to disagree.
Joel Embiid is out for an indefinite period as he manages his knee injury, and George has already said that he’s playing through finger pain.
With McCain out for the year and 2.5 games separating them from the 10-seed (and another four on top of that to get to the 9-seed), there’s really no time with 24 games left to get back into contention.
Best case scenario, if everyone gets healthy and Philly can jump up to 10, maybe they can win both play-in games and snag the 8-seed. Their reward for that will be a meeting with the Cavs, who have only lost one more game all season than the Sixers have during their current losing streak.
Stepping away from the podcast for now is a good look from a PR standpoint for George, but it won’t have any effect on the Sixers’ dismal season.
This situation has no hope of improving until next year, and even then, it’s difficult to imagine Embiid and George being healthy enough to justify their hefty contracts.
