PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- The 76ers' season begins Wednesday night against the Washington Wizards at an empty Wells Fargo Center. It is the official start of the Doc Rivers era in Philadelphia.
The coach said over the weekend that he is cautiously excited.
"With a new coach and a new system, I’m always concerned early in the season about early games," he said. "Like, you don’t want to drop those games. You just never feel like you’re exactly ready in this situation, but we have to be until we will be."
As the season begins, the Sixers also are managing some trade rumors hovering over the team.
Even though President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey denied that Ben Simmons is on the trading block, Simmons has been attached to rumors involving Rockets superstar James Harden.
On Tuesday, Simmons didn’t sound bothered by them.
"Every day I wake up, every time I got a Sixers uniform on, I’m representing the Sixers. So my mentality never changes. I’m here to win a championship. That goal is never gonna change," Simmons said.
"I know things are always gonna be said in the media, and things like that, but my goal is to come in every day and get better and help the team that I’m on win a championship."
Joel Embiid said the players ignore rumors.
"We're not focused on that. We're focused on how we can get better as a team," he said. "We got a great opportunity to go out and compete for the whole thing, and that’s what we're focused on."
He added that, when he goes to social media, it’s for a certain purpose — and it isn't gossip.
"I just check anything, really, about video games," he said. "FIFA, in particular."
Embiid was involved in a separate rumor on Tuesday, when The Athletic reported that he didn’t want Tyronn Lue hired as the new Sixers coach.
The Athletic's Bill Oram and Joe Vardon reported that agent Rich Paul, who represents Simmons and LeBron James, was Lue's ally in the Sixers’ search, but that NBA sources said Embiid ultimately opposed Lue for philosophical and strategic reasons and because of how it would look if "Simmons' guy" got the job.
Of course, they brought in Rivers instead.
Embiid said he can’t control such reports or rumors, and he downplayed the Athletic story.
"You could’ve gone either way. Either of them would’ve been great for this team, and the owners and (Elton Brand), they went with Doc, and I thought it was a great choice," he said.
Rivers, for his part, has said publicly several times that none of the rumors are coming from the Sixers.
He said he's very excited about coaching them and thinks this team can be special.
"We have Ben Simmons on our basketball team, and we have Joel Embiid on our basketball team," he said, "and right now, teams that have two NBA All-Stars and All-Defensive players tend to fair well."
In other words: Never mind the rumors circulating at the start of this season. What counts most in the end are wins and losses.