Saturday night proved to be the most eventful one yet for the Philadelphia 76ers. In the advent of their latest loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, again with no Joel Embiid nor Paul George making their season debuts, emotions ran high in the locker room.
This time, though, it was not between fellow teammates, but between Embiid and a member of the media. Not long after the 76ers superstar went on a tirade against fans and other persons criticizing him for allegedly missing games on purpose, he had already reached a boiling point, at least from the looks of it.
After a massive bomb initially with a reporter that Embiid punched the said media man, the incident was reduced to a shoving match, though he will undeniably still merit some penalties coming to his doorstep. Having said that, Embiid’s act was apparently done in retribution, and he wasn’t exactly without reason to do what he did.
Joel Embiid had a legitimate reason for his locker room incident
Shortly after the incident, PHLY Sports’ Kyle Neubeck, who was at the scene, clarified what had transpired in the 76ers locker room.
Here's the legend @KyleNeubeck from @PHLY_Sports. He was in the locker room, explaining what happened w/ Joel Embiid and the reporter.
— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) November 3, 2024
Full 5 minutes is worth listening to for context.
(my take is simple: don't bring up a dude's family to take a shot at him for being hurt) pic.twitter.com/ufintHbsd4
Apparently, Marcus Hayes, infamous for his polarizing and sometimes abrasive NBA columns, was part of the 76ers media circle that was present inside the locker room. Embiid saw and zeroed in on him, and engaged in a verbal exchange before Embiid shoved him and security had to step in.
The context was that Hayes recently put out an article heavily criticizing Embiid’s continuous absence, imbuing his argument with a boatload of ad hominems and shoving in unrelated facts to reinforce his point.
In that same article, Hayes mentioned Embiid’s son and even his deceased younger brother as springboards to criticize the 76ers superstar. Clearly, he indulged in crossing the line just to drive home a rather moot and non-constructive point concerning Embiid, who already responded with disdain to the article even before the dust-up.
“The next time you bring up my dead brother and my son again, you are going to see what I’m going to do to you and I’m going to have to ... live with the consequences,” Embiid said to Hayes, per AP News.
Put simply, Hayes had it coming. Media people around the NBA are inherently given liberty to express their sports-related sentiments, but being personally intrusive of one’s private links is never a good thing. And this does not only hold water in sports, but with life in general.
Hopefully, what arises from this is not only the NBA imposing the near-automatic penalties but also the league and the Philadelphia 76ers organization enforcing more safeguards for players while also ensuring that members of the media are held accountable as well in such occurrences that are uncalled for.