Sixers season preview: Joel Embiid, Paul George and the ‘secret’ friendship that changed the franchise

Paul George cannot remember the specific year or city. But while walking to the arena’s makeshift stage to rehearse All-Star player introductions, he and Joel Embiid organically wound up next to each other.

“I wasn’t talking to nobody. He wasn’t talking to nobody,” George recalled last week to The Inquirer. “… And it was just like, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ We got to talking.”

So it actually did not all start with the side-eye, as 76ers owner Josh Harris quipped during the July news conference to introduce George as his team’s flashy free-agency addition. That walk helped ignite a self-described “secret” friendship between two self-described NBA introverts, whose conversations at future All-Star weekends became deeper and more vulnerable.

For Embiid — the former MVP who has already cycled through star teammates with varying skill sets and personalities in Ben Simmons, Jimmy Butler, and James Harden — recruiting George for a championship quest made sense as an on-court and off-court fit. Their partnership’s formal debut remains delayed, after both were ruled out of Wednesday’s season opener against the Milwaukee Bucks. But whenever they do take the floor together, it will fulfill a summer proclamation from George that “it kind of felt inevitable that, at some point, we would link up and be teammates,” at least partially because of the bond already forged.

“It was just like, ‘Man, this is a cool dude. I could look forward to playing on the court with this guy,’” George said.

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For how trolling — and polarizing — Embiid can be on the internet, his demeanor is much more reserved in real life, “especially if I don’t know you,” he said. He joked at training camp that, rather than scream at a teammate, “I just give him the look if I’m mad at you.” He typically spends his non-basketball time at home with his family, emphasizing how fatherhood to 4-year-old Arthur (and, in a few months, a new baby) has changed his life.

George views himself similarly, saying in July, “I’m not much of a social guy in the All-Star setting. I kind of keep to myself.” But dating back to when both players were represented by Creative Arts Agency, the descriptor about George that Embiid “always heard was, ‘Great guy. Great human being.’”

Following the initial connection in that All-Star rehearsal line, George said he always looked forward to catching up with Embiid. Conversation topics included Embiid’s upbringing in Cameroon, the big man’s 2023 shoe deal with Skechers, and how many kids they had.

Eventually, Embiid opened up in a way that was especially meaningful to George.

“He was like, ‘Man, regardless of what goes on, I look at you as someone that I want to be friends with for a long part of my life,’” George said. “And that was deep to me. Because we knew each other, but we didn’t know each other on that level yet. …

“[From] that point on, we just kind of built a stronger relationship, where it came to this summer.”

Behind the scenes of George’s efficiently productive — and healthy — 2023-24 season, contract extension negotiations with the Los Angeles Clippers were clunky before eventually disintegrating.

Amid that impasse, Embiid unexpectedly stepped onto the NBA Countdown set during the Finals for that viral side-eye while talking about the Sixers’ potential to “add some pieces” during an offseason with the salary-cap space to sign a max-contract player. Although that particular impromptu act caught George “completely off-guard,” he told The Inquirer, he and Embiid had already spoken about possibly teaming up in Philly because George “had Philadelphia as one of my top teams” if he chose to leave the Clippers.

“I can’t remember the last time we had an opportunity to go into the summer and add someone like PG,” Embiid said during training camp.

Entering that crucial offseason, Sixers coach Nick Nurse was unaware that Embiid and George had an established friendship. Tyrese Maxey, though, said Embiid mentioned it as the point guard prepared to go to his first All-Star weekend solo last February, because Embiid had just undergone knee surgery.

“He said [George] was one of the guys he used to talk to,” Maxey said. “I was just curious when I had to go and, not to say I didn’t have any friends, but I was kind of there by myself. It’s a different feeling, man. You’re in there with guys that you compete against all the time.”

Embiid and George building a friendship in those settings is “really cool, man,” Maxey said. “That’s what this league is about. It’s a brotherhood, at the end of the day.”

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So the conversations continued, with Embiid pitching to George “why I needed him.” They envisioned how their skills, as a dominant big man and a versatile wing, could mesh. Embiid shared more about Maxey, the dynamic ballhandler and tireless worker with whom Embiid has already created a strong bond.

For George, who grew up in Southern California and had spent the past five seasons with his hometown Clippers, “it was kind of coming down to, ‘Can I live on the East Coast?’”

As the overnight hours flipped from June 30 into July 1, George decided he could. When he moved to Philly, he naturally chose to live close to Embiid.

“It was just us talking and getting to know each other,” George said of Embiid, “and what it would look like if we were teammates. How can I help him? How can he help me? How can we complement each other? My questions and my thoughts and interests were like even stronger at that point. …

“It was more so us just taking that relationship between him and I even further, and diving into who the person is.”

Mystery still surrounds how this tandem will officially look on the court.

Although George learned how to be “egoless” while playing alongside All-Star teammates Russell Westbrook and Kawhi Leonard, he acknowledges that he has never shared the floor with an interior force like Embiid. The center did not play in any preseason games and still has not participated in five-on-five scrimmages, a ramp-up the Sixers say is part of Embiid’s season-long knee management plan. George, meanwhile, sustained a bone bruise in his left knee last week, sparking skepticism about pairing two players who are in their 30s with an extensive injury history.

Onlookers got a glimpse of those two together following this week’s practices, however, when they lightly worked out while matched up against player-development coaches. On Monday, George tossed post-entry passes, which Embiid turned into jumpers. If the double team arrived, Embiid dished it back out to George for a three-pointer. On Tuesday, they fired long-range shots from the right corner.

“It looks great,” Maxey said Monday from the gym’s opposite corner, glancing over a throng of reporters. “Ready to see it on the court.”

That possibility first hatched at those All-Star weekends, leading to an “inevitable” on-court partnership with the Sixers.

“It just made sense,” George said. “We both were kind of at the same level of what we wanted out of it. And we felt that we could have helped each other. I think our relationship is pretty strong.”

The Sixers open their season Wednesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Wells Fargo Center. Join Keith Pompey and Gina Mizell at 3 p.m. on inquirer.com/gamedaycentral as they preview the game, and the season ahead.