Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers set to 'try to win a championship,' with or without Ben Simmons

PHILADELPHIA — If Ben Simmons remains on the Philadelphia 76ers past Thursday's NBA trade deadline, Joel Embiid said he'll be welcomed back to the team.

But, in a lengthy answer to the question of what it will mean for Simmons and the Sixers after Philadelphia lost 114-109 to the league-leading Phoenix Suns Tuesday, Embiid made it very clear that it will be up to Simmons to show he wants to be part of the team if that scenario comes to pass.

«Like I've been saying since the season started, I'm happy,» Embiid said. «Whoever wants to play is welcome. If someone wants to play, they're welcome. But we've got guys here that want to be here, that show up every single night.

»Like I said… I don't know what other type of word I can use, but I get paid to bring results and win games. I don't get paid to, you know, babysit Tyrese (Maxey). I get paid to challenge him to try to help me win games. I get paid to, you know, do the same thing to Tobias and all the other guys and they respond to it, every single time. And just like the same way they challenge me, they know that it is never personal. I always go at them, and they always come back at me, because we all got the same goal: we want to win.

«But anybody is welcome to play. And if you want to be part of us, I am sure everybody is gonna be fine with it, but you got to show up. You got to want to be there. And I'm sure everybody is going to accept whoever that is. But, you know, to answer your question, I'm just worried about the guys that are here, and for the guys that are here, and if you're here, I'm going to challenge you and we're going to challenge each other to be better and try to win a championship.»

One way or the other, Philadelphia will get some level of clarity