Joel Embiid pushes columnist into 76ers locker room, sources say; NBA to investigate incident Trendy Blogger

By David Aldridge, Tony Jones and Sam Amick

Philadelphia 76ers star center Joel Embiid pushed a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist in the Sixers locker room Saturday night, multiple league sources confirmed. Athletics. The physical altercation occurred after Embiid and columnist Marcus Hayes argued following Philadelphia’s 124-107 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Hayes, a longtime columnist for the Inquirer and previously the Philadelphia Daily News, recently wrote an article that Embiid viewed as personally disparaging toward him and his family, which Embiid expressed to reporters after Friday’s practice .

In part, Embiid said he had “done way too much to have this damn city treated like this.” The column in question, written on October 23, discusses Embiid’s son and his brother, Arthur, who died in a car accident at the age of 13 in 2014, a tragedy that Embiid repeatedly said l almost made me stop playing basketball. Embiid’s 4-year-old son is named Arthur, after his brother.

Embiid has yet to play in a single game this season, one that began with a 1-4 start without Embiid and star forward Paul George, including Saturday’s loss.

Hayes went to the game Saturday and entered the team’s locker room after the game ended. Embiid sought him out and their conversation quickly deteriorated.

Hayes did not physically respond to Embiid’s push, a team source said.

An NBA spokesperson said Saturday: “We are aware of reports of an incident in the Sixers locker room this evening and are opening an investigation. »

Embiid’s playing status this season has been a constant source of conversation and frustration for the team and for the seven-time All-Star, who has been injured in every postseason in recent years, a contributing factor to the franchise’s failure to make it out of the second round of the playoffs during his tenure. Embiid and the 76ers have been working on a potential plan for the center to play in the regular season but play fewer games to try to keep him healthy for the playoffs.

Embiid underwent surgery on his left knee last February, which kept him out for much of the second half of the 2023-24 regular season. He returned for a first-round playoff series against the New York Knicks and was noticeably hampered throughout the series. The Knicks won it in six games.

But Embiid played in the Paris Olympics for Team USA this summer, serving as their starting center, and appeared healthy. However, during 76ers training camp, a slight swelling was discovered in his knee and Embiid has since been sidelined.

Hayes has written several columns over the past week that have harshly criticized Embiid, chastising him for his poor physical conditioning early in the season after playing in the Olympics, and knocking Embiid for his numerous absences over the years.

“The level of contempt Embiid has for his organization, for his industry and, most importantly, for the fans who pay him all his money is absolutely staggering,” Hayes wrote in an Oct. 23 column in the Inquirer. “Because fans buy the tickets, and fans watch TV, and fans buy the products advertised on TV. Embiid’s part of the deal is to show up and play basketball. But he doesn’t even bother to be fit enough to hold that part of the deal.

This is an incredible dereliction of duty. This is totally unacceptable.

In initial versions of the column, Hayes wrote:

“Joel Embiid consistently points to the birth of his son, Arthur, as the major inflection point in his basketball career. He often says he wants to be great to leave a legacy for the boy named after his little brother, who died tragically in a car accident when Embiid was in his first year as a 76er.

This paragraph was removed from subsequent versions of the column posted online.

Last Wednesday, after the NBA fined the 76ers $100,000 for what it called the team’s “inconsistent” statements regarding Embiid’s health, Hayes criticized Embiid again. Hayes suggested the team offer refunds to fans who purchased tickets in good faith for home games this season, only to learn that Embiid would likely miss several games during the year to avoid playing consecutively.

“Additionally, it is highly unlikely that Embiid will play in all subsequent home games, even if they are not consecutive; after all, he has missed 46 percent of regular season games since the Sixers drafted him in 2014,” Hayes wrote. “So it’s fair to assume he will miss 10 home games, none of them due to injury. That’s about 25 percent of what each full season ticket holder paid.

On Friday, Hayes criticized Embiid again after Embiid responded to the criticism, saying he had “done way too much to have this damn city treated like that, so I did way too much.”

In his Friday column, Hayes acknowledged Embiid’s MVP award, as well as his carrying the franchise, and said Embiid “could end up being the best player in franchise history.” But unlike Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, Moses Malone and Allen Iverson, to name a few, Embiid’s teams have not advanced past the second round of the playoffs. And even though Embiid has played through injuries and illnesses in the postseason, well, he’s not the only one. Here’s an idea: be in better shape when the playoffs come and it won’t be so difficult to play with any injuries that may arise. »

Embiid, 30, is in his 10th season with the Sixers, who drafted him with the No. 3 pick in 2014. He missed his first two NBA seasons due to a right foot injury, surgery and a new foot injury. But he began to come into his own during his third professional season and hasn’t looked back since, becoming the face of the controversial rebuilding plan the Sixers undertook that became known as “The Process.” .

In eight seasons, Embiid averaged 27.9 points, 11.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 433 regular season games. But he has been plagued by lower body injuries throughout his career, many of which came either late in the regular season or during the playoffs.

After the Sixers made public comments about their plan to keep Embiid out of back-to-back games this season and then held him out for a nationally televised game against Milwaukee on Oct. 23, the NBA issued a investigation which ultimately confirmed concerns about his left knee.

If the league had discovered that Embiid was indeed healthy and the Sixers had decided to prioritize the playoffs while resting him regularly during the regular season, then the league’s hammer would certainly have fallen hard. But league sources said Athletics that Embiid’s left knee, in the eyes of the NBA and the Sixers, was unstable enough that there was concern about additional damage had he played in those early regular-season games.

The league still fined the 76ers $100,000, but that was due to the public statements.

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(Photo: Justin Casterline/Getty Images)