Joel Embiid eyes championship run with 76ers' new big three - ESPN

LAS VEGAS — At this time a year ago, the Philadelphia 76ers were staring at a very uncertain future.

James Harden had demanded a trade. Tyrese Maxey had yet to establish himself as a full-fledged All-Star. And both the 76ers and Joel Embiid — the NBA's reigning Most Valuable Player at the time — were coming off yet another disappointing second-round playoff exit.

The message from the franchise — specifically 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey — to its star, back then, was a clear and consistent one: Be patient, and we'll provide you with a championship-level team. But while Morey and the 76ers landed Paul George in free agency this offseason — something Philadelphia could only do by being judicious with its resources over the past year to create the max cap space necessary to sign the nine-time All-Star — Embiid admitted to ESPN he wasn't always sure that plan would work out.

«I'd be lying to say that patience wasn't tested,» Embiid told ESPN. «Because I'm at the point where there's no awards, there's no regular season or no All-NBA or All-Stars is going to change the way my legacy is. Well, there's a few things that can change it, but the main one is the championship. So when you start thinking about what you want to be remembered at, you want to be remembered as someone that's won.

»When you are presented with a plan, sometimes it goes wrong, sometimes it goes right. We've still got long way to go. On paper it looks great. But we still got to go on the court and make it work."

The plan Morey presented Embiid was straightforward: The 76ers would eventually acquiesce to Harden's trade demand, but only if it either brought back a star player in return or left Philadelphia with the resources necessary to