What happens in the locker room stays in the locker room. Point of fact, the same can be said for any internal meeting. The savvy veteran, Paul George, has participated in such multiple meetings. But things are a bit different in the world filled with “real pieces of sh*t”. That’s what Joel Embiid said.

On Monday, the NBA world was rocked by a leak from the 76ers locker room. Words got out from the internal team meeting, and it got ugly quickly, thanks to social media and critics, ready to pounce on the wounded Sixers. Words were out on the streets about Tyrese Maxey confronting Embiid and calling him out for his tardiness.

Reacting to that on the latest episode of his ‘Podcast P With Paul George,’  the host opened up about his side of the story with teammate Reggie Jackson on the side. The Sixers forward made himself clear about the situation. “I don’t know how the hell shams got that story or how that even leaked. The whole meeting, that’s normal in the NBA,” PG said. Adding more to it, he continued, “Teams go through that. 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. It was positive conversation. It was healthy conversations. We’re a team that cares.”

After the Sixers went down to the Heat on Monday, making their record 2-11, a meeting was called between players and staff. According to Shams Charania, Maxey called out Embiid for being late to team activities, pointing out how that affects the rest of the team and the coaching staff.

This was not something completely unheard of as the Cameroonian has a past record of similar actions in the past, predominantly during his earlier days in the league. Things have been rough for the 7’0 Center this season with the injury issue. That led to his locker room outburst involving Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Inquirer, leading to a ban for the former MVP. And now this, that too from one of his closest confidants in the team.

Embiid put his hands up and pleaded guilty as charged. Admitting his habits of tardiness, Embiid told the media about his occasional delays, but that was when he was injured. He even acknowledged his bond with Maxey and revealed the confrontation was nothing malicious. But he did not forget to speak his mind about the leak. “Whoever leaked that is a real piece of sh*t. 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,” Embiid told the media on Wednesday. But how exactly did the words get out of the meeting? George has an explanation to that.

Paul George discusses the personnel present at the fated meeting

The NBA media’s increased accessibility to the locker room leaks all sorts of information that should’ve been swept under the rug. The post-game media invasions of the locker room are something many pros have talked about and want the league to take precautions against, including George.

But when it comes to an in-house meeting, any info leak raises a major question about the locker room moles feeding stories to the media. The whole Sixers fiasco is an example of it. Talking about the crazy scenario, PG said, “I’ll say the people that was in that room is the people that’s supposed to be in that room, and it’s the people that go out and were in the trenches with on a nightly basis.”

Looking at the current situation in the Sixers, they need to turn the tide and better turn it quick. Before the start of the season, they were one of the heavyweights to be contending for the Eastern Conference top seed. Following the addition of Paul George, hopes were at its peak but so far the gun powder seemed soggy with all the injury issues. The Sixers fans can only hope that their chances will be still alive before the big 3 finally play a game together.