LeBron James calls out ‘lies’ regarding Mike Breen’s Joel Embiid story

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The Philadelphia 76ers are set to be the center of a lot of media attention this year with the addition of LeBron James to their roster.

Any team that James is on creates headlines, and anecdotes that might fly under the radar if the central characters were lesser known NBA players are understandably newsworthy when James is involved. Such was the case with a story shared by announcer Mike Breen during Monday’s broadcast of the preseason game between the 76ers and New York Knicks.

“Somebody told me before the game that they were out ready to practice and Joel Embiid walked out on the court a couple of minutes late, and LeBron let him hear it,” Breen said.

This is the sort of anecdote you can expect out of training camp season. A respected veteran comes in and helps establish a culture of greater accountability among his new teammates. It’s very similar to the joke about the ongoing cycle of coaches adding and removing table tennis from NFL locker rooms.

But on Tuesday, James pushed back against the story in a post on social media.

“He ain’t been late so stop the lies,” James wrote in a post shared to his Instagram account.

LeBron came out and refuted this story tonight on Instagram: https://t.co/djV7zfAURx

For what it’s worth, it was reported two years ago that Sixers teammate Tyrese Maxey called out Embiid in a team meeting for being late “for everything” amidst a dreadful 2–11 start to the season, so this is not the first time we’ve heard stories of Embiid’s alleged tardiness. That said, Embiid being late two years ago by no mean proves that he was late again this training camp, and James sounds adamant in his statement that that was simply not the case.

In the end, this feels like a pretty small potatoes bit of “he said, he said” drama. Once the season starts, there will be plenty more to talk about regarding the Sixers than who showed up at what time to practice—at least as long as they’re winning.