'Tense' Meeting on 76ers Players' Issues Revealed in New NBA Rumors After Playoff Loss to Knicks
The Philadelphia 76ers reportedly held a "tense" meeting in which players expressed frustration regarding participation in team activities and the direction of the season on April 1, according to The Athletic's Tony Jones.
"On April 1, the same day as Embiid's social media post, a handful of players met with members of Philadelphia's coaching staff before shootaround in Washington to express concern over certain players' participation in team activities and frustration over the direction of the 76ers' season, multiple league sources told The Athletic," Jones reported Monday. "Among other things, the players expressed they felt there wasn't enough control of the locker room, according to those sources. The meeting was tense enough to briefly imperil the team's shootaround; however, the conversation resolved enough that the activity was able to proceed as planned, those sources said."
The 76ers eventually advanced to the second round of the playoffs, but were swept by the New York Knicks in a series that wrapped up on Sunday.
In a pair of April 1 posts on X, Joel Embiid wasn't pleased after the team announced that he would miss a matchup with the Washington Wizards due to an illness.
The 76ers opened their 2025-26 campaign with a 29-21 record, but went 12-13 over their next 25 contests to sit at 41-34 at the time of the meeting as well as Embiid's social media activity.
Philadelphia finished 3-3 across its final six regular-season games before taking down the Orlando Magic in the play-in tournament to face the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.
The 76ers secured an upset victory over the Celtics in seven games, coming back from a 3-1 series deficit for the first time in franchise history.
Philadelphia was ultimately unable to overcome the Knicks, suffering a 144-114 loss in Sunday's Game 4.
