With Ben Simmons sidelined due to injury, Joel Embiid and the Sixers are down 0-2 in their first-round playoff series with the Celtics and appear to be headed towards another early postseason exit.
Former NBA player Bonzi Wells doesn't believe Embiid is cut out to play in a city like Philadelphia.
"It's time for a new voice, if they don't get a new voice they're going to lose their stars," Wells said after the team's Game 1 loss on the Zach Gelb Show. "Because a lot of people are not built to be in Philadelphia, they're not built for the grit of Philadelphia. Allen Iverson, built perfect that. I don't know if a Joel Embiid is all in, in the Philly culture. 'Philly, I'm Philly!'
"I think he's the type of guy who wants to go Miami or LA, somewhere where he can kind of just lay in the sun and chill. You can kind of tell. You can tell, everybody has checked out. And it's going to be tough moving forward in Philly to keep their stars there if they don't make some changes."
Embiid has talked openly on numerous occasions about his love and relationship with Philadelphia, most recently on The Rights To Ricky Sanchez podcast and during a podcast with JJ Redick.
In October, after Embiid got into a scuffle with Minnesota's Karl-Anthony Towns he said, "That’s what the city of Philadelphia is about. You gotta come in here, you gotta fight. You gotta play hard. You gotta be gritty. You gotta be a Broad Street Bully. That’s what it’s about.
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"I was built for this city and they were built for me. I can’t thank them enough."
And in February, Embiid shushed the home crowd after being booed earlier in the game. Embiid later has explained that he enjoys being booed and that the fans helped him realize he needs to be better.
All in all, The Process -- despite another difficult year -- continues, and hopefully Embiid and Simmons can eventually help other reach the mountain top.