Following the Philadelphia 76ers’ 2-11 loss in Miami on Monday, the reigning NBA MVP received a reality check from an All-Star teammate.

As reported by ESPN, Sixers center Joel Embiid was called out in a team meeting by point guard Tyrese Maxey for being late ‘for everything’ amid the dismal start to Philadelphia’s season. According to insiders who spoke to the Worldwide Leader, Maxey made the point that Embiid’s tardiness affects not just the players and coaches but also the personnel in the Sixers locker room.

According to insiders who spoke to ESPN, Maxey and Embiid are still good friends but constantly criticize one another.”This is the elephant in the room,” one of the meeting participants told ESPN, despite Tyrese’s affection for Big Fella.

Despite having just finished an MVP season, Embiid has come under fire for stating that he no longer anticipates playing back-to-back nights for the rest of his career. This season, he was suspended after getting into a violent altercation with a reporter. During his nine years in Philadelphia, Embiid has also been criticized in the past for his work ethic and behavior.

Veteran point guard Kyle Lowry called the meeting on Monday after the team suffered its fourth consecutive defeat in Miami.

Even though the game ended at 9:51 p.m., coach Nick Nurse took over an hour to appear for his postgame press conference. Naturally, the previously mentioned team meeting was the cause.

To the roughly six reporters who awaited his arrival, Nurse apologized for the wait. After answering questions as usual, a few players spoke when the locker room opened.

The season is far from over. The 82-game marathon hasn’t yet finished its first quarter. Now is not the time to panic.Cleveland and Boston have obviously separated themselves atop the Eastern Conference; the 15-0 Cavaliers visit the 11-3 Celtics in an NBA Cup game on Tuesday night. From there, the rest of the East – from Orlando at 9-6 to Philly in a group at 2-11 – are separated by just six games, with about a million games left to play. Nobody is out of it, certainly not a 76ers team that has Embiid, Maxey, Paul George and an NBA champion point guard in Lowry.

‘I mean, 2-11 is pretty bad, of course,’ Philly’s Jared McCain said. ‘But it’s still the beginning of the season. Least minutes played as a team together, so I say it all the time: Give us grace. We’ve got to get better.’

To be fair, there was nothing that seemed to be shattered in the 76ers’ locker room when the team meeting finally ended. No broken whiteboards, no signs of trouble, and many players were cracking jokes.

‘We had a meeting? I didn’t know,’ Embiid said, which was his way of letting reporters know that he wasn’t going to spill the tea on anything that got said behind closed doors.

He did concede, however, that he might need to be more aggressive going forward. The 76ers are figuring out how to make all the pieces fit, but Embiid knows they can’t keep going down this path.

‘We’ve got that record,’ Embiid said, ‘and something needs to be done about it.’