Philly has to be the focus, Embiid says

The Sixers' All-Star center tells me that he plans to defer any conversation about his international future until the offseason

HOUSTON — Joel Embiid, James Harden and Tyrese Maxey have played together in six of the Philadelphia 76ers' first 24 games this season … and none since October.

The Sixers, not coincidentally, were off to a middling 12-12 start entering Friday’s play.

So an early December night in Clutch City, right after the Sixers lost to the lowly Rockets in double overtime in Harden's first game back from a 33-day absence — and with Maxey still sidelined indefinitely — probably wasn't the best time to ask Embiid about what he plans to do for the next two summers.

Not that I could help myself.

I was in a postgame locker room for just the third or fourth time since the doors were reopened to the news media this season. Embiid is one of my favorite people to speak to anywhere in #thisleague and, soaking both feet in an ice tub at that moment, he clearly wasn't going to be leaving his locker stall anytime soon.