You Three Are Not That Guy, Pal
Mike O’Connor is the best O’Connor in basketball writing. Previously of The Athletic, you can find Mike on Twitter @MOConnor_NBA. Mike’s writing is brought to you by Body Bio, supplements based on science, focusing on your gut and brain health. Get 20% off E-Lyte, Gut+, and all Body Bio products with promo code FIRECJ at Body Bio’s website.
A few weeks back, while watching Karl-Anthony Towns get obliterated on Twitter for saying people will claim he “changed the game” after he retires, I had a bit of a realization about the nature of public perception for NBA players: there is practically nothing that people find less endearing than overstating your stature, relevance, or competence. Regardless of how good you actually are, there are very few things fans find more grating than when your words or actions write checks that your résumé can’t cash.
It’s why Twitter gathered around to crush Stephen Jackson a couple weeks ago when video resurfaced of him saying he was better than Ray Allen and Manu Ginobili. It’s why the video of Draymond Green putting Paul Pierce in his place is so iconic. It’s why the You’re Not That Guy, Pal meme got so much mileage a couple years ago. Carrying yourself as one guy, when you are in fact another guy, is deeply embarrassing and unlikeable to the public eye.
And that is, I think, a big part of the reason why the Sixers’ offseason has been so incredibly frustrating, and so many fans are fed up with the three most prominent figures in the organization – James Harden, Joel Embiid, and Daryl Morey. Every member of the organization should feel colossally embarrassed for their role in how last season ended, and yet, they are carrying themselves publicly in a way that conveys just the opposite. They each desperately need to run into someone in the supermarket who can kindly remind them that they are Not That Guy, Pal. Since the guy from that meme is likely unavailable, here is my best attempt at doing so.
James Harden is no longer good enough and has not won enough to be demanding a trade to a specific team after opting into his contract for this year. If LeBron in 2018, after dragging the Cavs to the Finals, had opted into his contract and demanded a trade to the Lakers, I think most fans would have understood, given the circumstances. But for Harden, on his third trade demand in three years, after two straight years a career of major playoff flame-outs, this is nothing but embarrassing.
Joel Embiid publicly insinuating that he may want to play somewhere else, and then trying to convince the fans that he was trolling them, is just an unfunny and off-putting move on every possible level. Regardless of if he was trolling, or was upset at the reaction and then lied about trolling to cover his tracks, it’s just incredibly cringe and conveys a lack of PR savvy. You are coming off of a playoff loss that was all caps PATHETIC, and every Sixers fan feels like you let them down. You do not have the standing at the moment to troll the fans, and you probably don’t even have the standing to be wondering out loud about playing elsewhere when you yourself bear an enormous amount of the responsibility for the team not ever having advanced past the second round in your career. The loss to the Celtics should have given you an enormous slice of humble pie and sparked some serious self-examination, but it appears that it did none of that.
And lastly, while I consider Daryl Morey to be a very good GM, he has not earned the right to welcome on all forms and degrees of PR chaos in order to maybe (maybe!) eke out one more lottery protected 2030 first round pick from the Clippers. If he were Bob Myers, Masai Ujiri, Pat Riley, or any other long-time executive who had brought a championship to their team, then sure, he should have carte blanche to enter into an uncomfortability contest against James Harden. The team has not accomplished enough on his watch – and it hasn’t been long enough since the last time that he did this – in order to enter into a months-long endeavor that yet again makes us a chaos factory with loads of drama and uncertainty. The last time he did this, all it got us was two more crushing playoff losses and somehow end up back in the exact same situation
The Harden situation, by the way, is very different from the Simmons situation in one key area – there is an obvious trade suitor right now that has a clear package that makes sense in return. Please, just make it happen, so that we can turn the page on all of this drama and establish some sort of a culture and identity under a new head coach.
If the Harden saga lasts until the start of the season, it will mean that we’ve spent roughly 40 percent of our time since July of 2021 entrenched in a miserable hostage situation. It’s easy to say that it’s the right thing to do because it worked out with Ben Simmons, but at what point do we consider the fact that nearly half of this time has been a fucking miserable fan experience – and the other 60 percent hasn’t been so great, either. The team simply has not accomplished enough on Daryl’s watch in order to justify willfully making the experience of following this team so miserable.
James, Joel, and Daryl: it gives me no pleasure to say that the three of you are not that guy, pal. Look – I can’t sit here and tell you that you shouldn’t carry yourselves in this way if you think it’s what’s best for your careers. But what I can guarantee you is that public perception will absolutely not welcome it. There is nothing the public hates more than NBA figures acting like That Guy when they are Not That Guy, and that’s exactly what you three are doing. As fans of the organization, we are vicariously embarrassed by you.
Fans want to see change, and not just to the names on the roster. They want a new direction – a new attitude and culture. They want it to be clear that when the team looks back on the past few years of playoff disappointments, they feel shock, terror, and re-fucking-morse. Instead, all we’ve gotten is a couple fringe moves and a whole bunch of public drama and embarrassment, and three guys refusing to realize that they are Not That Guy.