October 29, 2015
Sometimes, stories just have legs. Now, two weeks after The Cauldron’s story on Joel Embiid was published, Shirley Temples are still a hot-button issue in Philadelphia.
The day after the Sixers opened the season with a kind-of-promising loss to the Boston Celtics, team CEO Scott O’Neil went on Mike Missanelli’s afternoon show on 97.5 The Fanatic (podcast is here) to talk about a bunch of topics and take calls from listeners.
Early in the interview, Missanelli brought up the Shirley Temple report. While trying to identify the publication (The Cauldron/Sports Illustrated), O’Neil interrupted the radio host.
“It was I Have No Sources dot com,” O’Neil said.
Well, then. After doing some crack research, I have come to the conclusion that O’Neil may have misspoken. After typing that address into my web browser, I was directed here:
“This is an article that has so little truth in it that I hate even addressing it,” O’Neil said. He later added that the article included some “speculation, stretches, and pure fabrication.”
A particularly noteworthy portion of Brian Geltzeiler’s original article said that owner Joshua Harris didn’t want Embiid to go to Las Vegas for summer league so that the 21-year-old center could have surgery on his foot. According to Geltzeiler’s sources, the Sixers weren’t able to prevent Embiid from going:
Embiid was determined to go to Vegas to party for the balance of the 10 days of summer league. While Embiid was in Vegas, he was mandated to wear the walking boot in advance of the second surgery, but Embiid not only refused to wear the boot, but he carried himself as if nothing was wrong with the foot, shooting jumpers and even occasionally dunking. These actions have given rise to the theory that Embiid actually re-broke his foot, rather than the initial injury not healing properly. It also led to Embiid having the surgery a month later than the club originally had hoped.
When Missanelli brought the subject up, O’Neil denied this part of the story.
“I would just say for whatever it’s worth, I flew out [to Las Vegas] with Jo,” O’Neil said. “I love my job, I love my boss [Harris], and I certainly wouldn’t fly in the face of things that he asked for.”
O’Neil admitted not all of Embiid’s rookie year went smoothly. The Sixers’ CEO brought up Embiid’s situation (his family was in Cameroon, he had just tragically lost his younger brother, and he couldn’t play basketball) to try and explain why in his words, Embiid “went through some ups and downs.”
“Did he have some mood swings? Of course he did. Did he have some moments where it wasn’t perfect? Of course he did. Does he want to play basketball more than anything else in the world? Of course he does.”
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
