After the Philadelphia 76ers’ game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday night, star big man Joel Embiid shoved a reporter in the locker room. NBA insider Shams Charania revealed some details about the shocking incident during a recent appearance on SportsCenter.
“Essentially right after the game tonight in Philadelphia, the Grizzlies beat the 76ers as we just saw right there, Joel Embiid and a columnist, who recently wrote a column on Joel Embiid that referenced his late brother and his son, they got into a verbal back-and-forth,” Charania said. “They had an emotional moment in that locker room and it turned into a physical altercation.
“From what I’m told, Joel Embiid shoved that columnist,” Charania continued “… A league spokesperson tells me that the NBA has commenced an investigation into the situation. They are aware of the reports and they are starting an investigation into Joel Embiid shoving a columnist, and getting into a physical altercation with a columnist in the locker room.
“I’m told there was a lot of yelling,” Charania added. “And then security, other members of the team got involved in that situation to break it up.”
Charania didn’t mention the columnist’s name but it is Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Here is the column that Embiid took offense to.
Man, look. If you write this, you gotta be accountable to the player. This isn't talking about what Joel Embiid is doing on the court. This is ridiculous.
Is it worth getting physical with the dude? IDK, I want way more details on how this whole thing escalated. pic.twitter.com/lIXkwNrIk8
— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) November 3, 2024
As Sam Vecenie pointed out, this was out of line. Embiid’s younger brother Arthur died in a car crash in Cameroon in Oct. 2014. There was no reason for Hayes to bring it up in this context. Does it justify Embiid shoving him? No, but you can understand why the 30-year-old was so upset. It was initially reported that Embiid had punched Hayes, but it’s now been clarified that it was only a shove.
We now wait to see if the NBA is going to get involved. While Charania didn’t witness the incident, Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports did. Neubeck was in the locker room and revealed how things panned out.
“Marcus was present in the locker room and the second that Joel realized he was there, got into a verbal back-and-forth,” Neubeck said. “Obviously, we can’t repeat many words of it on this show.
“But the basic gist of it was, ‘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, talk to me about basketball. That’s different, but if you ever talk about my family again, we’re going to have real problems.’ They go kinda back-and-forth, and at some point, let’s say 90 seconds, two minutes into this back-and-forth, Joel shoves him, team security steps in, players kind of surround the situation, and everyone kind of dispersed.”
It appears to me that Embiid just wanted to talk to Hayes at first and had no intention of getting physical. The reporter going back at him and refusing to back down is what seemed to have ticked him off to the point that he shoved him. It will be very interesting to see how the NBA views this.
As for the game itself, the Grizzlies won 124-107 to drop the 76ers to 1-4 on the season. Embiid and Paul George are yet to play a game in 2024-25 but the two were full participants at practice recently, so they should be back on the court sooner rather than later.
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