Before Sunday night, the last time the 76ers featured two All-Stars was in 2002 when the game was in Philadelphia. Allen Iverson scored five points while Dikembe Mutombo only tallied eight. Meantime, Kobe Bryant ran away with the MVP award thanks to a 31-point performance that drew boos and "Kobe Sucks" chants from the First Union Center crowd. I mean, it was fresh off losing in The Finals to the Lakers the previous summer. Did Bryant think he was going to get cheered?
None the less, this time around Sixers fans were guaranteed at least one winner due to the mixing of East and West players. Ben Simmons was on Team LeBron and Joel Embiid was on Team Giannis. For the second year in a row, LeBron's squad won 178-164.
Here are my takeaways from a meaningless, yet fun basketball game in which defense was optional.
Simmons came to play
He's not the best "quote" after games and certainly doesn't have the personality of the rest of "Philadelphia's Fab Five," but you can't question Simmons desire to win at whatever he's doing. In a game where effort comes and goes, it was obvious Simmons wanted to make his mark.
In his 17 minutes, the Sixers point guard sported the second highest plus-minus in the game at plus-19. He played a very good role in bringing Team LeBron back from a 20-point deficit. Simmons scored 10 points to go along with seven assists and six rebounds. Not to mention, he was five-of-five from the floor. In other words, it was a typical Simmons-esque night, just with a lot less minutes.
Embiid wasn't as sharp
It didn't help that Giannis Antetokounmpo was on a mission from the opening jump to win MVP, but it was fairly obvious Embiid was going at half speed. That's not surprising. While it's only his second All-Star Game, he's been there and done that. Embiid was four-of-12 from the floor with 10 points and 12 rebounds in 23 minutes. He especially struggled down the stretch when everyone actually played some defense.
In the end, it's only an All-Star Game. We all know that Embiid brings it when it matters.
NBA fans were robbed of beautiful awkwardness
It's not secret Embiid and Russell Westbrook aren't tight, which is why it was glorious when LeBron James and Antetokounmpo swapped Westbrook and Simmons at the All-Star draft. Unfortunately, Embiid and Westbrook were never on the floor together. Unless we get a concrete answer as to why, that falls on Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer. Maybe them playing together was avoided on purpose. Based on this video from The Action Network's Rob Perez, Westbrook had no interest in talking about Embiid at Saturday's media day.
Joel Embiid on if he's going to be able to get along with Westbrook for one night as an all-star teammate pic.twitter.com/ZLUyFURgos
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) February 16, 2019Either way, what's the point of the trade? It would've been better if Embiid faced Westbrook.
Iverson shows his admiration for Steph
One of the best part of All-Star games is the in-depth access you often get from whoever's putting on the telecast. TNT mic'd up Stephen Curry, who made his way over to Sixers legend Allen Iverson, who had a front row seat.
Steph x A.I. #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/p72Zsbfv7S
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 18, 2019Iverson expresses his great fondness of Curry's game as the two embrace. You can't deny that both of these guys changed basketball in their own respective fashions. It was cool to see them greet one another, as that's two separate generations of NBA royalty.
