Getty Tom Thibodeau, head coach of the New York Knicks.
Joel Embiid‘s next team could be just one Amtrak ride away from Philadelphia should he seek to compete for a championship elsewhere.
“I mean, line up the Acela Express and get sent him up to New York [Knicks],” ESPN insider Dave McMenamin said on the July 17 episode of The Lowe Post podcast with Zach Lowe. “That’s been what has been the murmurs. You said, New York. We’ve all heard New York. We know the connection between Leon Rose and Joel Embiid.”
Rose, the Knicks president, is Embiid’s former agent. The reigning MVP was ecstatic when Rose left him and his other clients at Creative Artists Agency for the unenviable job of righting the sinking Knicks ship.
“Leon is my guy,” Embiid told New York Post in 2020. “He’s like family to me. When I heard the news, I was happy for him. He’s cool. Being an agent for such a long time and getting a GM or a president job, I think, is amazing. I’m so happy for him. I’m sure he’ll do a good job over there. I think he’s a great human being. He’s going to do a great job.”
Is a reunion in the cards?
The odds have never been higher after Embiid’s recent comments during The UNINTERRUPTED Film Festival last week in an interview with SpringHill Entertainment CEO Maverick Carter.
“I just want to win a championship, whatever it takes,” Embiid said. “I don’t know where that’s going to be — whether in Philly or anywhere else — I just want to have a chance to accomplish that. I want to see what it feels like to win that first one, and then you think about the next one. It’s not easy. It takes more than one, two, three guys. You got to have good people around you. Every single day, I work hard to be at that level so I can produce and make it happen. Every single day I’m working towards that goal.”
Lowe was not surprised at Embiid’s comments.
“I’ve said for more than a year that this is a simmering situation in Philly …,” Lowe said. “… I don’t want to read too much into a comment, but the comment confirms what everyone I’m paying attention to in the NBA landscape already knows already knew.”
The outcome of the James Harden trade demand will be crucial in Embiid’s future in Philadelphia.
“As soon as the Harden news dropped from [Adrian Wojnarowski] that he was opting in and had, according to Woj, likely played his last game with the Sixers, I said forget all these other names. There’s only one name that matters. It’s Joel Embiid.
What’s going to happen to Joel Embiid?
All the teams with draft picks, the Knicks are lurking, and Joel tried to, on Twitter, kind of play this off, ‘Oh, I’m a troll. I’m just trolling.’ I don’t buy it. He’s too smart for that. He knows exactly what he’s doing by saying that. He knows the door that he’s opening,” Lowe said.
Knicks Stash Pick Staying in EuroLeague
Knicks’ 2021 second-round pick Rokas Jokubaitis is staying in Europe, he revealed to reporters at the start of Lithuania’s training camp for the upcoming 2023 FIBA World Cup.
“Everything’s agreed upon,” Jokubaitis said via Basketnews. “I signed a 1+1+1+1 deal with Barca, the plus in the contract has been activated in July again. I still have a contract with them.”
The 22-year-old Lithuanian guard is coming off his second season with Barcelona FC, helping them win the Spanish Liga Endesa. He averaged 5.3 points, 2 rebounds, and 2.6 assists in 39 games.
Evan Fournier Lashes out at Knicks for Benching Him
In a bombshell interview with French outlet L’Equipe, veteran Evan Fournier did not hold back in discussing the lowest point of his career he endured with the Knicks last season.
“You want to spit on everyone. You have hatred. Derrick Rose and I looked at each other and said to each other: ‘What the hell are we doing here?’ During the five-on-five practice, we were on the side like some prospects—uncool times. And when I realized that wouldn’t change, I took things more slowly,” Fournier told L’Equipe.
Fournier wants a trade to revive his career away from New York.
“I would be shot [if I stay]. I’m going to be traded, it’s not possible otherwise. Or I’d be stuck, and so would they. They have several players with big contracts coming in. Unless they want to pay a crazy luxury tax… If I stayed, it would be a disaster basketball-wise for my career,” Fournier told L’Equipe. “I can manage a year without playing. Two… that would be terrible.”