More and more NBA stars are losing patience with their teams and asking for trades. This summer Bradley Beal finally left the Wizards, Damian Lillard requested a trade from the Trail Blazers and James Harden was ordered out of Philadelphia.
Harden’s teammate Joel Embiid remained loyal to the 76ers, the team that drafted him and trusted him as he missed his first two years in the NBA due to injuries.
However, with the prospect of Harden’s departure, some might think that the best NBA player yet to win a championship might also want to leave.
That won’t happen, according to an anonymous NBA general manager. GM doesn’t see that happening now, possibly in the future when the Embiid contract expires in 2026.
“No, no way,” said one GM emphatically when asked about Embiid’s question. “He’s a different kind of character. He’s a lot like (Damien) Lillard and (Bradley) Bell because he wants to be loyal to the team, he wants to stay there, he has a lot of appreciation for the way he was treated there. Now, his contract is up in (2026)” That is, three years. It’s a tough situation, if we’re still talking about this in three years, you’d expect the story to change by then.”