There seems to be no end in sight for the Philadelphia 76ers woes this season, as a team once expected to contend for a title, struggles to keep things together both on and off the court.
They raised eyebrows earlier this week after it was revealed that rising star Tyrese Maxey had called out former MVP Joel Embiid during a team meeting, claiming he needed to be more accountable and committed to the team.
But this report has since been addressed by both Embiid and fellow All Star Paul George, both players offering an insight into what seems to be an increasingly dysfunctional locker room.
MORE: 'Great Barrier Thief' continues to make history | Is Josh Giddey the new Cameron Payne? | The key to Dalton Knecht's immediate success on Lakers
Embiid, George respond to locker room leak
There's nothing that can destabilise a locker room quite like a leak, and the 76ers currently find themselves trying to respond to information around a team meeting getting out to the public.
"Whoever leaked that is a real piece of s***," Embiid told media Friday, not pulling any punches over the situation.
"It's kind of annoying having to deal with the same things over and over and over.
"But even then, we talked about a lot of things. I don't want to get into the details, but that whole thing probably took 30 seconds.
"I need to be better. I need to be perfect, I need to be on point, which I'm going to do."
Teammate George agreed with this assessment, speaking about the situation on the latest episode of his show, Podcast P with Paul George.
"That's normal in the NBA, teams go through that," George said.
"I've been on multiple teams where we'll at some point have a meeting and a check-in if things aren't going right or if we know we could be playing better and we're trying to get the most out of one another, that's normal. That happens.
"It was healthy, it was positive conversation, it was healthy conversations. We all just want the best. We are at a point where we're a team that cares, right?
"A team that naturally cares about what's going on with their team. They're going to have sit downs and they're going to discuss, how can we get back on track or start winning tradition or winning culture. So that's just where we're at with it."
The 76ers fell to 2-12 Thursday after failing to defeat the Memphis Grizzlies, giving them the unfortunate title of worst record in the NBA.
