Wed, Feb 12th, 2020

  The Opening Tip

• Joel Embiid is made for TV

• The Knicks are finding new ways to get laughed at

• Zion was electric last night

• Russell Westbrook is on a tear

1. The Lead: Joel Embiid’s relationship with Philly is both toxic and exhilarating

The Process is going to get its own 30 for 30 someday, and it’s probably just going to be named The Process, which is super lame.One of the best parts of it, though, will be the retelling of what’s happened over the last week, when Joel Embiid went full WWE heel and trolled the city of Philadelphia before deciding enough was enough and effortlessly winning them back. 

• Last Friday, at home against Memphis after a four-game road losing streak, Philly fans boo the 76ers, because that’s what a suppressed, angry city does. 

• On Sunday, at home again versus the Bulls, the fans boo the 76ers again. Then, Embiid hits a dagger 3-pointer, does the shushing motion and tells his home crowd to shut the fuck up. 

• On Monday, Embiid posts a picture of the incident on Twitter and Instagram with the caption, “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” 

• Later that Monday, Jimmy Butler, laughing from his glass house in Miami, comments on the Instagram post, saying, “I know a place where villains are welcome.” Embiid replies within a minute, saying, “Damn right my brother.” The city is wounded. Sports radio segments like this one start packing Embiid’s bags.

• On Tuesday morning, betting sites start releasing odds on where Embiid will play the first game of the 2020-21 season. 

• On Tuesday night, Embiid is introduced at home against the Clippers to more boos. He has a slight smile. 

• In the first quarter, Embiid makes an and-one, smiles and prompts the crowd to cheer louder. They do. Without verbalizing it, Embiid is saying, you know I love you, bigheads. He finishes with 26 points and the 76ers beat the Clippers, 110-103, improving to 25-2 at home. 

• After the game, Embiid posts a picture of him hyping up the crowd with the caption, “BROTHERLY LOVE #MyCity” 

Below the picture, a 76ers fan from the darkest trench of the NBA Internet comments,

“shush me daddy,” 

and like that, the most toxic and exhilarating fan-player relationship in the league is back together.

2. Zion’s jab-step

The quickness of Zion Williamson was on full display last night in a 138-117 win over the Trail Blazers. (Mind you, he’s 285 pounds, roughly Nikola Jokić's weight.) Zion finished with a career-high of 31 points, with nine rebounds and five assists.

New Orleans has now won three straight games and is 4.5 games behind Memphis for the eighth seed.

3. It’s time to reset the Knicks haven’t done anything really stupid in _ days counter

The Knicks' new branding consultant, Steve Stoute, went on ESPN's First Take yesterday and said a lot of things, one of which prompted a statement from the PR department and a dunking on courtesy of Adrian Wojnarowski.The quote that got him in trouble: 

“There had to be a change in (moving on from team president Steve Mills). That change will bring a new coach and new coaches that are going to help develop these younger players..."And getting a coach in there and ultimately getting a coach and a coaching staff that’s going to help develop a team, that’s what I expect to happen so that we can actually get to what you expect from a New York team.Having a coach like that who has the magnitude and gravitas so that the media would love to talk to him and believe him, I think that’s super important.” 

Of course

, the Knicks have not said anything about moving on from current interim head coach Mike Miller, who has led the team to a 13-19 record. 

And so they

on Tuesday at 5:46 p.m., saying:

"While Steve Stoute is a valued contributor to the Knicks' marketing and branding efforts, he does not speak on behalf of New York Knicks personnel and basketball operations." 

Knicks gunna Knick.But, hey, at least Forbes releases its trivial and based-off-of-nothing franchise evaluations yesterday, which listed the Knicks as worth $4.6 billion. It’s always nice to see incompetence get rewarded. This is why James Dolan will never sell.

4.  TBOB 2.0: Dwight Howard, the best center that never was

The latest Book of Basketball 2.0 podcast

examines the strange career of Dwight Howard, who is a shoo-in, first ballot Hall of Famer who was washed as an impact player by the time he was 28:

“His offensive game never matured beyond dunks, alley-oops and putbacks. His personality never matured, period. Dwight goes down as one of the biggest NBA superstar jackasses ever. He never ever, ever, ever got it.” 

Plus,

there was the whole extortion of a

… nevermind, we forgot no one is allowed to acknowledge that.

 5.  Quick hits 

• It’s Bill Russell’s 86th birthday today. Russell is the greatest human alive. He also has the greatest laugh ever. Here’s a compilation of him laughing. 

• Russell Westbrook scored 36 on 13 of 23 shooting last night against Boston. Since Jan. 1: 33.1 points per game, 53.2 percent shooting. 

• Joel Embiid with a massive “shit outta here” block on a Marcus Morris layup attempt last night, minutes after they had a shoving match. 

• Kawhi Leonardalmost replicated his famous four-bounce shot against the 76ers last night. 

• Al Horfordcame off the bench last night for the first time since 2008.

6.  Off the press

• Miami made the Jimmy Butler gamble that Chicago never could [ESPN]

• The 10 most intriguing names on the NBA’s buyout market [The Ringer]