Joel Embiid on James Harden: “He’s an amazing player”

Joel Embiid expressed happiness for James Harden in securing the trade he desired. However, Embiid disagreed with Harden’s perspective on his time with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Harden, in his introductory press conference, claimed he felt the team held him back from reaching his full potential as a star guard.

“But in my opinion, we gave him the ball every single possession, because he’s really good,” Embiid said. “He’s an amazing player.

“Obviously, being that great of a passer, I think we gave him the ball … we’d give him the ball every single possession to just go out and, you know, do his thing. And from there he had to make decisions as far as getting guys open or looking out for himself.

“But I thought he did a pretty good job of getting us into an offense and just passing the ball, getting guys open. That’s the reason why he won the assist title last year.”

Embiid reiterated his happiness for Harden but expressed disappointment in the way everything unfolded.

“Like I said, I’m happy for him. He got what he wanted,” Embiid said. “Unfortunately, there was a lot of misunderstanding between people that were mentioned but it’s always good to see people happy and he seems to be happy.”