Nerlens Noel found out he’d been traded to Dallas in the middle of practice. Before leaving to get on the plane he needed to say goodbye to a friend, teammate Joel Embiid.
Watch Joel Embiid hug Nerlens Noel goodbye and try not to cry
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Joel Embiid saying goodbye to Nerlens Noel: pic.twitter.com/7iK48eStUj
— Tom Moore (@tmoore76ers) February 23, 2017
The pair have been close since being drafted by the 76ers. It was rough to see Noel go, but Embiid was looking to the future.
Seventeen minutes later he was feeling better about the whole thing and returned to his mantra.
The trade, which sent Andrew Bogut and Justin Anderson to Philly, is a battle of logic and emotion for Sixers fans. The former telling them this is OK, the latter making them want to rock back and forth and sob. I asked SB Nation’s Tyler Tynes, a diehard 76ers fan, how he was feeling about the trade.
I felt like my heart was taken out of my body and fed to the nearest Philly-hatingest animal that eats hearts. The deal might yield us some dope shit but Nerlens was a savage and I loved him that even if he did destroy some dude’s house in the process.
Also: trust the process. Sometimes it hurts.
Trades hurt. Philadelphia will miss you, Nerlens.
