Stephen A. Smith criticizes James Harden, Joel Embiid after Game 7

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When players as talented as Philadelphia 76ers stars James Harden and Joel Embiid have poor performances in big games, it sparks a lot of criticisms and debates. That’s just the way it goes for players of their caliber.

As the Sixers were looking to finally reach the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 22 years, their stars came up short in a Game 7 blowout loss to the Boston Celtics. Embiid finished with just 15 points on 5-for-18 shooting while Harden had just nine points on 3-for-11 shooting.

After their poor performances, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who is never one to mince words, criticized both Harden and Embiid after yet another Round 2 exit.

Smith on Harden

James Harden was so awful, so bad, he should actually shave his beard so he can hide his identity. That’s how bad he was. I mean, it was really, really bad. I say that in all seriousness, I’m not joking. I worked in Philadelphia for 17 years. It was that bad. I’m telling you right now, it would be difficult for him to walk the streets. You don’t do what you saw him do on Sunday afternoon in a Game 7…listen, first of all, they ain’t giving him no max deal. They ain’t giving him a major long term deal. If he went there would be for two years at best, I can assure you, this performance right here, turned a whole bunch of people off about James Harden.

Smith on Embiid

Joel Embiid is now 0-5 in conference semifinals series. He has never been to a conference finals. Did you know Joel Embiid is now 0-3 in Game 7s? He hasn’t won a Game 7. This is what the situation is with Joel Embiid. This is the same Joel Embiid when we were talking about (Nikola) Jokic and we were talking about Embiid, it got to a point where so much noise was made about the MVP, there was some people who speculated that Jokic no longer prioritized that and said ‘Go ahead and give it to the big fella. I’m not about that conversation. I got bigger fish to fry.’ Coincidentally, Jokic is playing in a conference finals beginning tomorrow night (Tuesday) and Embiid is going home again, so let’s just throw that out there.

Story originally appeared on Sixers Wire

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/stephen-smith-criticizes-james-harden-214755032.html?src=rss

Author : Sixers Wire

Publish date : 2023-05-15 21:47:55

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