The NBA has suspended Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid three games without pay for shoving a reporter during a postgame altercation Saturday night, the league announced on Tuesday.
“Mutual respect is paramount to the relationship between players and media in the NBA,” said Joe Dumars, NBA Executive Vice President and Head of Basketball Operations. “While we understand Joel was offended by the personal nature of the original version of the reporter’s column, interaction must remain professional on both sides and can never turn physical.”
Following the 76ers’ loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center, Embiid confronted Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Embiid was bothered by a recent column Hayes had written about the forward’s injury issues — a column that had received widespread criticism for referencing Embiid’s son and late brother.
Kyle Neubeck of PHLY later provided a recap on his company’s postgame show.
“The second that Joel realized he was there, got into a verbal back-and-forth. Obviously, we can’t repeat many of the words that were said on this show. The basic gist of it was basically, ‘You can say I suck, you can say whatever you want about me as a player. Don’t ever put my dead brother’s name in your mouth. Don’t talk about my family. Don’t bring them into this. You want to talk to me like a man and talk to me about basketball, that’s different, but if you ever talk about my family again, we’re gonna have real problems.’
“They go kinda back-and-forth and at some point, let’s say 90 seconds to two minutes into this back-and-forth, Joel shoves him. Team security steps in. Players kind of surround the situation and everyone kinda dispersed.”
Hayes’ column was written in reaction to Embiid not being ready for the season, with the Sixers citing a left knee issue. The Sixers were later fined $100,000 for their public statements about Embiid’s health.
The lede of Hayes’ column:
“Joel Embiid consistently points to the birth of his son, Arthur, as the major inflection point in his basketball career. He often says that he wants to be great to leave a legacy for the boy named after his little brother, who tragically died in an automobile accident when Embiid was in his first year as a 76er.
“Well, in order to be great at your job, you first have to show up for work. Embiid has been great at just the opposite. Now in his 11th season, he consistently has been in poor condition. This poor conditioning apparently seems to have delayed his debut this season.”
The first paragraph of Hayes’ story was later removed with him explaining in a tweet that he “can see why so many people were upset about it. Sorry about that.” Arthur Embiid died in a car crash in Cameroon in 2014.
Embiid did not accept the apology and sounded off on Hayes while speaking with reporters Friday:
“If your body doesn’t react well and if your body tells you one thing — I’ve done it. From what I can tell you, I’ve broken my face twice, I came back early with the risk of losing my vision, had broken fingers, I still came back. So I’m not going to sit here and be like — I see people saying, ‘He doesn’t want to play.’ I’ve done way too much for this city putting myself at risk for people to be saying that. I do think it’s bulls***.
“Like that dude, he’s not here, Marcus, whatever his name is, I’ve done way too much for this f***ing city to be treated like this. Done way too f***ing much. I wish I was as lucky as other ones, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not trying and doing whatever it takes to be out there, which I’m gonna be pretty soon.”
Embiid has yet to play this season for the 76ers, who have lost five of their opening six games. There was hope that the 30-year-old would make his season debut on Wednesday at the Los Angeles Clippers, but the suspension will not begin until he is able and eligible to play.