Rudy and Don definitely don't have it in them. They care way too much about being liked. Especially Rudy.
I think this is why they don't get much respect around the league, especially Rudy. I think Rudy and his emotional outbursts and crying episodes, instead of conveying his passion, made him look like the little kid on the playground crying to his mom about no one wanting to play with him. If he had gotten pissed instead and pushed it back on everyone else it would have come across differently.
Don't get me wrong, I love our guys largely because they play for the love of the game, they care about each other, and they deserved to get recognized for that, but there is no way to deny that the league is a bunch of locker room guys, and the prevailing thought processes are more along the lines of toxic masculinity than inclusion and tolerance.
I have been to games, at the floor level, I have heard the stuff these guys say to each other, both in jest and when they are pissed off. Plenty of stuff flying around such as "you are such a *****" that shows that locker room mentality is alive and well. Our guys, outside of maybe Joe, don't really engage in a lot of that from player to player. I think they need to trash talk more, showboat more, embellish more. If they don't, they won't get the respect of their peers or the refs, or the league in general.
Maybe it is time to become the Bad Boy Jazz. Knock someone down and get the T for taunting.
By the way, shouldn't Embiid have gotten a T for taunting when he was walking up and down the court calling for a T on Mitchell. I never really liked Embiid before, but now he is cemented as douchenozzle #1 in my eyes.
I hope we do face them in the finals and kick their asses. Then I hope when it is all over and they are shaking hands and what not that our entire team just slaps them away and walks off the court, with a nice little "**** you" to go.