Following a second-round upset against the Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid vows to come back stronger next year.
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For the last couple of seasons, Philadelphia 76ers have been trusting the process and making the playoffs after quite a while. Following their last playoffs fiasco, the Sixers started the 2020-2021 campaign with revenge on their minds.
Backed by the All-Star pairing of MVP finalist Joel Embiid, DPOY finalist Ben Simmons, and a few key acquisitions, Philly went on to have the best record in the entire Eastern Conference.
Entering the playoffs with the number 1 seed, several analysts had Joel and his team as legit title contenders. After a first-round 4-1 gentlemen’s sweep against the Washington Wizards, no one quite expected the Sixers to fall out of the title contention, getting eliminated by an inexperienced Trae Young-led Atlanta Hawks team.
Also Read: Draymond Green doles out advice for the Sixers’ star during Game 7 against the Hawks
“There is so much more I can do. I’ll be even better next year”: Joel Embiid
The 7-foot Cameroonian gave it his all throughout the 2020-2021 campaign. He put up a terrific 28.5 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game in the regular season. And brought the same energy in the postseason, averaging 28/10/3 on 51/39/84 shooting splits.
It genuinely is sad to see JoJo suffer such a painful loss this season, despite giving his everything to try and lead his team to their first Eastern Conference Finals in 20 years.
Despite playing on a torn meniscus, and Ben Simmons’ offensive struggles, the 27-year-old Embiid went off against the Hawks. However, this is just a learning experience for the fourth-year player.
As expected, Joel promised to be back next year and be back better. In a postgame speech, he gave a warning to all the teams in the league:
“[I] just gotta be better. Personally, I felt like I took a huge step this year, and there’s so much more I can do. I can be so much better… There’s so much more I can do. I progressed a lot this year, and next year I’m going to be even better…”
“It’s on me. I got to be better. I got to take another step with it comes to taking care of my body, and my game as a whole because I still feel like I have a lot of untapped potential that people haven’t really seen.”
This offseason will be a pretty busy time period for the Sixers organisation. Of course, a lot of work will have to be done related to the rosters and the staff.
Irrespective of any other move, Joel Embiid will continue to be the epicentre the team is built on. Without any doubts, Philly will look forward to coming back this next campaign with a vengeance.
