Stephen A. DEFENDS Mad Dog: Let’s NOT ACT like the 76ers can’t WIN IT 👀 | First Take

Stephen A. DEFENDS Mad Dog: Let’s NOT ACT like the 76ers can’t WIN IT 👀 | First Take

Philly fans need to stop crying on what the Eagles didn’t do and embrace what the 76ers team is capable of doing the season real talk on that note we welcome in Brian wior hey Wendy good morning good morning uh mad dog I’m going to start with you does

Embiid have enough to win the title this year no he does not that team has not winning the NBA championship and perk to be fair the Eagles just had a historic collapse they’re not going to get the the Philadelphia sports fan right now is wrapped up on serani and the eagle

Disaster not so much on yachin and beid no but the uh the big make a bigger picture point the Sixers are not an NBA championship team I know in the last couple years Harden took the hits as he should have and without him they’d be better but I still don’t think they’re

Better than the 70s than the Celtics or Milwaukee in the East and one other thing on this topic I mean somewhere Kareem is laughing and Wilt upstairs to saying this is ridiculous how in a world I watched a lot of this game can embiid and can embiid and jokic play against

Each other on a couple trips down the court I mean embiid’s Gordon freaking Aaron Gordon and freaking embiid’s Gordon you know Tobias Harris I mean how about going up against each other for crying out loud this is not what NBA centers are all about go ask Russell and

Wilt and wil go out there and guard hinsen and Russell guard freaking Luke Jackson I mean wit and Kareem had some of the greatest matchups in the history of the NBA and they’re not ging each other Jack guarded Robinson Yan guarded Robinson Malone guarded Kareem and I got

Yach and a beid afraid of each other not g they play two games a year and hopefully embiid shows up next week in Denver last year he didn’t hopefully he shows up and plays the game in 10 days but this is ridiculous we got two big players the two best centers in the

League and against each other they’re not playing that’s why people laugh at this nonsense this is not about jok and jokic and it should be this should be about the best center and the second best center head to-head they don’t play against each other one guards somebody

Else and one guards this guy that’s not what centers are about in the history of the league oh it told me crazy but no fedia has not wonning an NBA championship how’s that Wendy well I know that uh I wasn’t around back in the 50s Mad Dog when you

Were there with a hot dog in one hand and a pen it in the other watching Dolph Shays go up against George mikin but I don’t know if we’ve ever seen the the level of skill at the center position like the two of these guys going up

Against each other and in the modern NBA and the way they modern NBA’s play defense this is going up against each other now I’ll give you if these two teams played in the finals and I’ll talk about that in a second it’s not impossible I think over a long series

You would see them going up against each other but a couple of things you I want to keep in mind one it was the second night of a backtack for embiid which he played despite having a sore knee and he obviously cared about because the way he

Came out in this game he poured it into this game secondly MB is a shot blocker they want him to be able to be a help Defender so he can come over and defend and the modern defense where there’s switching where there’s helping and stuff there’s a case to be made that

That embiid can potentially be more impactful defensively if he’s off joic joic is not as much of a shot blocker and is more of a stationary Defender and so it makes more sense for him to try to use his length against embiid’s ability to operate from the top of the key but

That is the modern game and you know what’s amazing about the modern game dog that right after this game ended you could switch over and watch Phoenix play Sacramento and in the fourth quarter of that game Kevin Durant played center against Deon sabonis and Durant had 15

Points in the fourth and sabonis had a triple double and you could see a Mastery of big men in a different way that’s where we are at in a wonderful place in this league right now where we have incredibly sized skilled men doing things the league has never seen before

With all due respect to Mr Russell Mr Chamberlain Mr Abdul Jabar Etc now when it comes to Philadelphia I agree with you that they are not the Boston Celtics and in my mind they’re definitely behind the Celtics the Clippers and the Nuggets doggy let me say this to you there has

Never been a day where you have been on first take with a particular take that I will defend you more than I will right now with your point about guys going directly up against one another in the sport of basketball that’s what makes basketball special and these analytic

Dudes have kind of ruined all of that because they play a numbers game they play the odds and they say hey this is the decision that you need to make and they forget the ultimate appealing component that comes with the game of basketball on occasion Wendy and that is

It’s me against you you know I remember when if you recall in the days of Jordan when there were certain people that would get on his nerves or he would fabricate something just to pretend as if they got on their nerves so he’d go out on the court and Destroy them we’ve

Heard what he did to Clyde Drexler during Olympic competition because my goodness that was an opportunity I Olympic competition I’m sorry in the finals when they went up against Portland and we saw what Jordan did he was absolutely Herculean we remember when Kobe Bryant got injured and had to

Wear a mask and the very next week Miami came to town and dwade had to go up against Kobe and they were guarding one another and going at one another it’s moments like that this year when we I was on podcast P Paul George’s podcast right and he was talking about how he

Was gonna play bullyball even though he was saying it was against everybody him and Devin Booker were chirping at one another they go up against one another a few weeks ago One Drops 35 the other drops 33 they’re going at one another we live for this we would lament the fact

That on occasion when we talked about Kawai and how kawhai could be a stopper and what he could do against LeBron vice versa he was guarding LeBron we look forward to that and we wanted LeBron to embrace that match up publicly and he wouldn’t give us the father to really

Really gravitate to it we want that in the sport of basketball but don’t ever doggy blame in Bean because embiid chirps he talks and then he go and and this is the beauty about embiid he talks about the people he directly is going to go up against before he goes up against

Them then goes on the court looking for them to bust their living you know what we’ve seen Wendy knows this we’ve seen that from embiid time and time and time again embiid is not the culprit here doggy with what you’re pointing out accurately I might add it’s not him he wants the dude

That you claim to be better than him at his position and then he goes out on the court and annihilates them remember what he did to Rudy go a few years ago uh when Rudy go was Defensive Player of the Year Wendy and then be went up against

This man this is what I’m talking about that’s basketball that’s what we love to see we understand things schematically we understand in in clutch moments you’re going to look for elements that lead to you winning a game but on far too many occasions the coaches the executives the assistants everybody gets

In the way of that mono imano moment that we’re looking forward to in a sport of basketball when it’s the F of the players condemn it but most times it’s not now let me get to the Sixers saying this quickly I don’t believe the Sixers are going to win I pick the Boston

Celtics to win at all and I agree with Wendy Denver Clippers Boston Cut Above Philly but let me say this let’s not act like Philly can’t win it with MB looking like this with maxi looking like like this and here’s the key Tobias Harris has to show up a loss against Atlanta about

Four games ago he drops 32 a win against Sacramento about three games ago he drops 37 last night he dropped what was it 20 24 2 if that Tobias Harris shows up it changes everything it changes everything because that’s your third option and Tobias Harris is a 17o per

Game scorer on 51% shooting this brother can play he just needs to be aggressive and embrace that third wheel as an offensive component to the Philadelphia 76 by the way averaging seven more points per game okay defensive rating is the [Applause] Same

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, and Brian Windhorst join Molly Qerim to break down if Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers have enough to win an NBA title.

#firsttake #espn #nba #76ers #joelembiid

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