Josh Richardson is Becoming a Vocal Leader the Sixers Desperately Needed

PHILADELPHIA, PA -- Earlier this week, the big story coming out of Philly was the 76ers' lack of guidance within the locker room. As the team was headed down a tough road of going four-straight games without a win, many were beginning to believe the wheels were falling off for this year's Sixers.

As the team lost their veteran leaders from last season when JJ Redick left, and Jimmy Butler was traded, somebody else had to adopt the captain's role. At the beginning of the year, Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris took it upon themselves to organize off-court team activities so the new squad could build chemistry.

But who was going to be the guy to step up and speak their minds when things get tough? From the sounds of it, Simmons and Harris weren't ready to take on that task. Apparently, the quiet veteran Al Horford didn't jump to do it either, although he's the one who admitted that "some stuff was going on" behind the scenes in the locker room.

At first, it was unclear what was happening when Horford made those comments -- but everybody immediately assumed the worst. The following day, The Athletic's Shams Charania reported that the Sixers decided to call a players-only meeting before their practice this past Wednesday. And the player within the locker room who decided to galvanize the troops wasn't Simmons, Harris, Horford, or Joel Embiid. Instead, it was the first-year Sixer, Josh Richardson.

In a way, it shouldn't come as a surprise. After all, Richardson is one of the first players to publicly call his team out back in December as he believed there was a lack of accountability in the locker room. Back then, Richardson felt sort of awkward for being the one to bring it up as a new player in the building. Now, a couple of months later and J-Rich is finding himself becoming a vocal leader in the Sixers' locker room.

"Everybody has a different role on the team," Richardson said on Friday after the Sixers bounced back with a win over the Grizzlies. "Stepping up in the vocal leadership role might be my thing. We're all still trying to figure it out."

So what was discussed between Richardson and his teammates exactly? Well, nobody wants to talk about it. Roughly about ten minutes earlier, Tobias Harris untypically danced around the question after being asked what happened during the players-only meeting. "We didn't have no meeting," Harris quickly stated. When the question immediately came back to him again, he instead said: "We just had a dialogue."

Since Harris wouldn't discuss any specifics, neither would Richardson. However, the leader of the meeting did say the team "sat down and talked some stuff out." While Richardson knows that issuing or being issued reality checks can be tough sometimes, the 26-year-old veteran wants his teammates to understand that it's not personal -- just necessary.

"That's how it has to be for us to be the best team we can be," Richardson explained. "I know it's not comfortable sometimes, and it's not going to be comfortable going forward but I think once we get past that threshold of just wanting to be in a comfortable range, we'll step to another level."

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_