CAMDEN, N.J. -- Joel Embiid's tears when he walked off the floor following Kawhi Leonard's Game 7 buzzer-beater last May weren't just because his Philadelphia 76ers had lost a heartbreaker. Rather, he felt like he had let his team down.

Embiid's stats and efficiency dipped in the playoffs as he dealt with knee pain as well as an illness in the series loss to the eventual champion Toronto Raptors.

On Monday, as he started a new season, Embiid said it haunted him and contributed to an offseason program that helped him drop 20 pounds.

"I just remember thinking I let my team down," Embiid told ESPN. "You can't control sickness or when it's going to happen. Obviously my knee was bothering me the whole second half of the season and the playoffs. But all I was thinking was what can I do make sure I don't let my teammates down again or my team. Or the whole city basically. That was to take better of my body. To work on the stuff I never really paid attention to, and it's been going well the whole summer."

Embiid averaged 27.5 points and 13.6 rebounds during the regular season for the 76ers but was slowed by knee tendinitis. He missed 12 games after the All-Star break, and in the series with the Raptors, he averaged just 17.6 points and 8.7 rebounds.

"I'm competitive. I think everybody knows about me. I like to compete. I want to win," Embiid said. "My production has got to go up in the playoffs instead of going down. That's why I feel like I let them down. We had a great chance of winning the whole thing. If that shot (by Leonard) hadn't gone down, you don't know what was going to happen."

Now healthier, lighter and armed with new teammate Al Horford, Embiid is setting huge goals for this season. His health is perhaps the biggest variable for Philly and a big reason the team added Horford to help take some stress off of him.

But Embiid only wants to do more. He wants to play more games than ever before, he wants to win major awards and he wants the 76ers to be the top seed in the East.

"Last year I played the most games I've ever played, 64. This year I see myself playing over 70 games," Embiid said. "That's going to be good for us because we're trying to get the No. 1 seed and we're trying to win over 60 games. It's going to help me because I need that team success if I want to win be able to win MVP or Defensive Player of the Year."

All that said, with his history of foot and knee issues, Embiid does plan to try to pace himself. He met with coach Brett Brown and general manager Elton Brand and discussed playing more games but fewer minutes as part of his load management this season.

"Last year I started off too high, playing 35-36 minutes a game and then I started slowing down," Embiid said. "This year, we're going to start off, not slow and not a minute restriction, but we'll start off at the right number, like 30-31 minutes to start, and then as the season goes on you start ramping up. It's hard to balance it. I'm competitive. I want to be out there with my guys. But you can win MVP playing 70 games."

MILWAUKEE -- It didn't take long for Giannis Antetokounmpo to address the elephant in the interview room at Fiserv Forum.

"I'm not gonna talk about it a lot this season, and I'm not going to try to address it," said Antetokounmpo, the NBA's reigning MVP.

Antetokounmpo, 24, is eligible to sign a five-year, $253.75 million super max extension in the summer of 2020 with the Milwaukee Bucks, according to ESPN's Bobby Marks, which would be the largest in NBA history.

This would apply even if Antetokounmpo fails to earn All-NBA honors this season, but his focus remains on team goals.

"I feel like if you have a great team, and our goal is to win a championship and be the last team standing and get better each day, I think it's disrespectful towards my teammates talking about my free agency and what I'm going through," Antetokounmpo said. "So, when the time is right, we're all gonna talk about it. I don't think the time is right."

Antetokounmpo would leave behind more than $90 million if he signs elsewhere with a team that has cap space in 2021, which could only offer $161.3 million for up to four years.

After falling to the eventual champion Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference finals last season, Antetokounmpo has made it clear that his goal is to lead the Bucks to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1973-74.

He already made franchise history last season as the first Bucks player to hoist an MVP trophy since Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1974. Milwaukee also finished with a league-best 60 wins in the process.

Although training camp won't begin until Tuesday at the University of Wisconsin, head coach Mike Budenholzer has already noticed some differences in Antetokounmpo -- notably from his FIBA World Cup experience.

"I think he's working a lot on his leadership skills to be honest with you," Budenholzer said. "His ability to connect and communicate with his teammates, whether they've been with the team for a while or new guys that are coming in.

"I've been so impressed with how his leadership continues to grow and improve day-to-day, and you would think that doesn't happen in the summer but it does."

The NBA recently fined Bucks general manager Jon Horst $50,000 for violating league rules of discussing Antetokounmpo's supermax extension during a televised town hall event, so he stayed away from the topic Monday. During media day, however, he showed up in a great mood while touching on a range of topics, notably managing outside expectations, alongside Budenholzer, with the ultimate goal of a title in mind.

What others say in the next 10 months surrounding Antetokounmpo is out of his control.

"Internal expectations are what matter to us, and we've been saying this for over a year now," Horst said. "We believe it, we live it. We care about getting better everyday. We want to improve on what we did last year."

Scotland showed "a true picture" of themselves in the 34-0 defeat of Samoa in their second World Cup pool match, says Gregor Townsend.

The Scots recovered from a 27-3 opening loss to Ireland with a bonus-point victory against the Pacific Islanders in Kobe.

Townsend's side next play Russia in Pool A on 9 October before taking on hosts Japan four days later.

"They showed who they are," the head coach told BBC Scotland.

"Showed through their courage, their energy they brought and the pressure they put on a very good team. That's a true picture of ourselves. Last week wasn't, for whatever reason.

"It was hard work. These are big men we're up against, you have to hit them hard. Our pressure told. First half was an excellent performance. We stuck to our task and were delighted to get the maximum points."

Townsend was asked if his players should now be "energised" after moving to within a point of Ireland and four of pool leaders Japan.

"They should be," he replied. "There's no better feeling than coming back from adversity or rising to a challenge with your mates and delivering.

"They deserve the two or three days off that they're going to get now. It's just over a week until our next game but 10 days really focused for the Russia and the Japan games."

After Japan's shock victory against Ireland on Saturday, Scotland face a scenario in which they could go out of the tournament even with three wins from four pool matches.

Japan themselves are the only country in World Cup history to have won three pool matches and not progressed to the quarter-finals, as happened four years ago in England.

Scotland therefore need to beat Russia then Japan with a bonus point, and deny the hosts any points in their final pool clash to give themselves the best chance of progression.

"Japan and Ireland are still favourites to get out of the pool," Townsend said.

"We have to win our next two games and get at least one bonus, potentially two. We knew the rules coming in. The challenge is there. If it means having to score four tries and deny Japan a bonus point then it is an even bigger challenge."

CONCORD, N.C. – It turned out to be a very good weekend for the entire Elliott family.

Not only did Chase Elliott score his third Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but his Hall of Fame father Bill Elliott also picked up a victory of his own on Saturday.

The elder Elliott was in action Saturday at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, where he drove a 1965 Chevrolet Corvette Roadster owned by Ray Evernham to the overall and American-class victories in the Sasco Sports International/American Challenge sprint race as part of the HSR Fall Classic.

The 1988 NASCAR Cup Series champion then traveled north to Charlotte Motor Speedway, where he got to watch his son win for the first time at the Concord, N.C., facility.

“I wanted to go over there and see it,” the younger Elliott said about his father’s race. “I’ve never made a lap at Road Atlanta. It looks like a really cool place. Definitely neat, not something you would necessarily think would happen. That’s kind of a tough thing to do for sure. But definitely pretty cool and hopefully we can share some more weekends like that moving on.”

– The race winner had no problem taking the blame for the near catastrophic crash on lap 65 that almost ended his hopes of winning Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400.

“I’m not sure you could do something more stupid than that,” Elliott said of the incident. “If there ever is a notebook of things not to do, that should be number one in that book.”

– Playoff contender Denny Hamlin was not pleased with his day Sunday, saying his team simply missed the setup on his No. 11 Toyota Camry after being forced to a backup car as the result of a crash in practice earlier in the weekend.

“Just missed it overall. Having a backup car and having to go to the back and then through that wreck that happened in turn one we got caught in, had to go to the back again,” Hamlin said. “We just couldn’t ever make it back towards the front. Just not enough passing zones. You can’t really get the flow going at this race track, so it’s just kind of – you just wait on the wrecks, you try to avoid them and get the best finish you can.”

– Hendrick Motorsports turned in a strong performance Sunday afternoon on the ROVAL, with all four drivers finishing inside the top-10.

In addition to Elliott and Alex Bowman’s one-two finish, William Byron finished sixth after leading 23 laps from the pole. Jimmie Johnson also survived an accident in turn one during an early restart to finish ninth.

– Kyle Larson’s shot at winning was erased when he was penalized for performance service outside of his pit box, which resulted in a one-lap penalty. The stage one winner managed to get back on the lead lap, but he was never able to get back to the front and finished 13th.

“I felt like Chase (Elliott) was probably the fastest, but I felt like myself and William (Byron) were probably the next best,” Larson said. “We won the first stage and during that pit stop, I didn’t wait on them to pull tape and kind of drug the crew member out of the pit box. So, I got a penalty there, a pretty stiff one. I had to lose a lap, but I got the lucky dog. I thought we were going to be OK and there at the end. We actually had a slow green-flag stop because we had some damage and they couldn’t get the right front out. We ended up 13th, but I felt like we could have easily been in the top-three. Just disappointed that we don’t have the finish to show for how good our car was.”

– Joey Logano was asked if he had any more confidence about racing on the ROVAL after competing on the track twice.

“Confident about what? That we’re all gonna crash? Yes. It’s a mess,” Logano said.

SPEED SPORT has been reporting on and covering motorsports happenings from all over the world for 85 years, so we thought it would be fun to take a look back in the archives to see what happened 10, 25 and 50 years ago each week.

So check out what SPEED SPORT was covering 10, 25 and 50 years ago this week in Looking Back!

Sept. 30, 2009 (10 Years Ago): Mother Nature wrecked havoc on the running of the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, forcing the event to be stopped late in the afternoon as torrential rains flooded the track. The Peugeot tandem of Stephane Sarrazin and Franck Montagny were the leaders at the time the red flag was displayed. Finally, at 8 p.m., American Le Mans Series officials made the call to cancel the remainder of the event and declared the Peugeot team as the winners.

Other Happenings: Rising IndyCar star Danica Patrick signed an exclusive contract with Andretti Green Racing according to team and industry sources; Dave Darland added another chapter to his USAC 4-Crown nationals history with a Silver Crown win at Eldora. Jerry Coons Jr. (Sprints) and Brad Sweet (Midgets) were also winners; Jimmie Johnson put together a dominant performance to win the AAA 400 at Dover Int’l Speedway.

Sept. 28, 1994 (25 Years Ago): Rusty Wallace prevailed in a battle of black cars, beating Dale Earnhardt to the checkered flag by three car lengths to win the Goody’s 500 NASCAR Winston Cup Series event at Martinsville Speedway. Wallace dominated the race, leading 369 of 500 laps, but still had to beat Earnhardt to the checkers. Despite the win, Wallace continued to lose the war to Earnhardt in the battle for the title. Earnhardt maintained a 217-point lead over Wallace in the title hunt.

Other Happenings: Page Jones was seriously injured in a sprint car crash during Eldora Speedway’s 4-Crown Nationals; Jack Hewitt (Silver Crown) Kevin Doty (Sprints) Steve Knepper (Midgets) and Freddie Smith (Late Models) were all winners in the 4-Crown Nationals; Jac Haudenschild snapped a drought dating back to 1992 with a World of Outlaws win at Knoxville Raceway; Scott Bloomquist locked up the Hav-A-Tampa Championship.

Oct. 1, 1969 (50 Years Ago): Richard Petty earned his third-straight Old Dominion 500 victory at Virginia’s Martinsville Speedway. Petty spun on the 17th lap and that sent him to the pits for fresh tires and dropped him two laps off the pace. It took him the entire race, but Petty eventually got back on the lead lap and put himself back in contention when a fan tossed a beer can onto the track, resulting in a caution flag with 36 laps left. He took the lead with 17 miles left in the race, leading the rest of the way. The win pushed him above the $100,000 winnings mark.

Other Happenings: Al Unser emerged from the shadow of his brother Bobby to win the Golden State 100-mile USAC National Championship race at the old California State fairgrounds in Sacramento; Independent driver Whitey Gerken won the USAC Stock Car race at Tri-County Speedway in Ohio aboard a Chevelle; Nolan Swift dominated the 200-lap Pocono Int’l Raceway National Open Championship; Stan Poloski outran a stellar field of modified stock car racers to win the rain-delayed Lebanon Valley 200 at Lebanon Valley Speedway.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It’s that time of year again.

With 11 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championships and three IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races in the books and just one more – Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 12 – still to go, championship scenarios are on the minds of everybody. And there’s still much in play.

In the Daytona Prototype international class, there’s a 12-point margin separating leaders Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya in the No. 6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 with 274 points from the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R squad of Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani (262 points). Cameron and Montoya picked up their third victory of the season last Sunday in the Monterey SportsCar Championship Powered by McLaren, while Nasr and Derani battled to a third-place finish.

Montoya and Cameron – who will share the No. 6 with 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner Simon Pagenaud – can clinch the DPi championship outright with a result of eighth or better at Motul Petit Le Mans. If Nasr and the No. 31 team are to repeat as champions – and make Derani a first-time champion – it will need a win and a result of ninth or worse from the No. 6 team.

The Whelen Cadillac will have Eric Curran, with whom Nasr co-drove to the 2018 WeatherTech Championship title, back in the cockpit for the endurance race. Curran and Nasr also won the Michelin Endurance Cup last year – the fifth in a row for Action Express Racing – and they’re also in the mix for the 2019 title.

Nasr, Derani and Curran, who won the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts, are currently in second place but by only two points. Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande, in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R, lead the competition and won the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona.

There are still three Michelin Endurance Cup scoring segments to go at Motul Petit Le Mans – after four and eight hours as well as the finish – with a maximum of 15 points and a minimum of six points available for all starters. As a result, there are still many permutations that would give either the No. 10 or No. 31 teams the 2019 title.

Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen winners Jonathan Bomarito, Harry Tincknell and Olivier Pla also are in mathematical contention for the Michelin Endurance Cup in the No. 55 Mazda Team Joest RT-24P, but they’ll need to sweep the maximum 15 points available across the three segments. They’ll also need the No. 10 to be outside the top three in all three segments and the No. 31 team to score fewer than nine points for the No. 55 to become Michelin Endurance Cup champions.

As far as DPi manufacturers are concerned, Acura needs only to score points at Motul Petit Le Mans to wrap up the WeatherTech Championship title. In the Michelin Endurance Cup race, Cadillac is currently in the driver’s seat with a six-point lead, 41-35, over Acura, the only other team mathematically eligible to win.

In the GT Le Mans class, it’ll be an intra-squad battle for the WeatherTech Championship title among the pair of Coca-Cola-liveried Porsche 911 RSRs from the Porsche GT Team. Leading the way is the No. 912 duo of Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor with a 12-point advantage, 304-292, over their No. 911 teammates Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet.

The No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R pairing of Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen, also are still mathematically eligible for their third consecutive WeatherTech Championship GTLM title. However, they’ll be eliminated as soon as the No. 912 rolls off the grid at Motul Petit Le Mans.

That sets up a similar scenario to the DPi title race. The No. 912, with Bamber, Vanthoor and Mathieu Jaminet at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, would clinch the title outright with a seventh-place class result or better at Motul Petit Le Mans.

The No. 911 squad of Pilet, Tandy and Frederic Makowiecki could steal the championship from their teammates if they win Motul Petit Le Mans – which they did last year – and the No. 912 finishes eighth.

As far as the Michelin Endurance Cup is concerned, the No. 911 team has a six-point lead over a tie for second between the No. 912 and No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT co-drivers Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe. But there are still five teams and three manufacturers – Porsche, Chevrolet and Ford – mathematically in the hunt.

The races for both the WeatherTech Championship and Michelin Endurance Cup are straightforward in LMP2. The No. 52 PR1-Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA team and full-season driver Matt McMurry only need to compete in the race at Motul Petit Le Mans to wrap up the WeatherTech Championship title.

The script is flipped in Michelin Endurance Cup, where the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA and co-drivers Cameron Cassels and Kyle Masson will clinch that title as soon as the car leaves the starting grid.

The circumstances are similar in the race for the WeatherTech Championship GT Daytona championship. No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 co-drivers Mario Farnbacher and Trent Hindman have a 32-point lead, 264-232, over No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R driver Zacharie Robichon – who won the inaugural WeatherTech Sprint Cup championship last weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

That means the No. 86 team and its co-drivers only will need to compete in Motul Petit Le Mans and they’re 2019 WeatherTech Championship GTD champions.

On the other hand, the battle for the Michelin Endurance Cup is still wide open in GTD, with no less than seven teams and 27 drivers mathematically in contention along with all eight manufacturers. No. 33 Riley Motorsports – Team AMG co-drivers Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Felipe Fraga lead the way in their Mercedes-AMG GT3 by three points, 29-26, over the No. 63 WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GT3 shared by Scuderia Corsa co-drivers Cooper MacNeil, Toni Vilander and Jeff Westphal.

Mercedes-AMG also has a two-point lead, 29-27, over Ferrari in the Michelin Endurance Cup GTD standings with three others – Acura, Audi and Lamborghini – just one point back in third.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta announced Monday that IMSA President Scott Atherton has been named Grand Marshal for next week’s 22nd annual Motul Petit Le Mans.

Atherton recently announced his plans to retire at the end of this year, ending a professional motorsports career that has spanned nearly 35 years.

Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta’s 10-hour endurance race takes the green flag on Saturday, Oct. 12 at 12:05 p.m. EDT. The 12th round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will also mark the end of IMSA’s 50th Anniversary season.

The 50th Anniversary celebration has centered around four cornerstones – “Drivers and Teams,” “Tracks,” “Manufacturers” and “Fans.” The Motul Petit Le Mans event features a celebration of the fans and what they have meant to IMSA throughout its 50 years.

“Scott has been an instrumental partner in the growth of the Motul Petit Le Mans and the ongoing development of Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, including the new Michelin Tower,” MRRA President and General Manager Geoff Lee said. “We are excited to have him serve as this year’s Grand Marshal as we thank him for all that he has done for both this iconic race and IMSA.”

Atherton served as President and CEO of Panoz Motor Sports Group for many years. He then co-led the American Le Mans Series through the merger with the Grand American Road Racing Ass’n under the IMSA banner in 2014, before assuming his current role.

Yamaha Motor Europe has confirmed that Alex Lowes will not return to the team following the conclusion of the FIM Superbike World Championship season in Qatar.

Lowes has been an integral part of Yamaha’s World Superbike program since the Japanese manufacturer returned to the premier production racing series in 2016. In a partnership that has spanned four seasons, Lowes and Yamaha have completed 106 races, with Lowes landing on the podium 15 times.

The 29-year-old also earned his first World Superbike victory last season, earning a thrilling victory at the Brno Circuit in the Czech Republic. He was also a part of winning three 8 Hours of Suzuka for Yamaha.

“I would like to start by saying thank you to Alex, not just for the success we have enjoyed together in WorldSBK and at Suzuka, but also for his commitment to Yamaha and our Superbike project, which he has been an integral part of from the beginning,” said Eric de Seynes, president, Yamaha Motor Europe. “It was a difficult decision not to continue with Alex in the same role for the 2020 season but it was also our sincere hope that he would remain within the Yamaha family. We knew there was a risk and, unfortunately, that risk has turned out to be real and Alex will not be on a Yamaha next season. Working with Alex these past four years has been a real pleasure for me and on behalf of both Yamaha and myself I wish Alex every success for the future.”

The NHL could be on the way to its version of "Are You Ready For Some Football?"

The league is announcing a two-year partnership with Green Day that includes an opening song for NBC Sports' "Wednesday Night Hockey." The song, "Ready, Fire, Aim" isn't custom-made for the NHL and will be on Green Day's next album, though it's likely a matter of time until Green Day or another band follows what Hank Williams Jr. and later Carrie Underwood did for the NFL.

These rock icons are taking it to the ice.

We're excited for @rockhall inductee @greenday to be the sound of Wednesday Night Hockey! #NHLGreenDay pic.twitter.com/FfDbbj0XEO

— NHL on NBC (@NHLonNBCSports) September 30, 2019

"That I think will probably be the evolution," NHL chief content officer and executive vice president Steve Mayer said. "If you look at our season and how many times this thing is going to be on, it'll become an anthem. The song, we're using slap shots, it's about scoring and speed -- 'Fire, Ready, Aim' -- I think people will start associating this."

Green Day's open will debut Oct. 9. The band will also perform at the All-Star Game in St. Louis in late January, and new singles from its album will be released on "Wednesday Night Hockey."

"We're going to try some bold thing," Mayer said. "The performance that we're talking about at All-Star will be epic."

Green Day songs will be incorporated into arena mixes around the NHL and provide the soundtrack for much of the season on NBC Sports Network and NBC. Fourteen of the band's upcoming tour stops will come in NHL markets, including Seattle, which will join the league in 2021.

"Green Day, just the energy, how they have this great history but they keep on sort of reinventing themselves, they just work for us," Mayer said. "Their music is going to be part of a lot of what we're doing."