Joel Embiid was involved in an altercation with a media member in the locker room after the Philadelphia 76ers’ Saturday night loss to the Memphis
Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer first reported the incident, saying that Embiid assaulted a reporter. He then clarified that Embiid shoved him after initially saying it was a punch. According to Shams Charania of ESPN, Embiid “got in an altercation with a columnist following tonight’s game in Philadelphia. Embiid took issue with a recent column that referenced his late brother and son, and Embiid shoved the columnist. No punch.”
Charania’s update confirmed that the media member that Embiid shoved was Marcus Hayes, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer who recently wrote a column that mentioned Embiid’s young son, who is named after his deceased brother, as a source of motivation that Embiid has let down because of his absences throughout his career. The lede to the story was later tweaked, removing the part about Embiid’s family, but it is still live on the Inquirer’s website. Hayes also issued an apology.
This is what the reporter said when he wrote about Joel Embiid’s late brother and son
Joel Embiid gets into altercation with media member in 76ers locker room
Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports, who witnessed the altercation, said that Embiid went up to Hayes upon seeing he was in the locker room and told Hayes that criticizing him was fair game but that discussing his family was not. Embiid shoved Hayes after a few minutes and the incident was broken up by team security.
“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,” @KyleNeubeck describes Joel Embiid altercation with journalist youtube.com/watch?v=9sT9l1…
Embiid recently spoke out about the narrative that he sits out games because he doesn’t want to play, mentioning Hayes by name.
“When I see people saying, ‘He doesn’t want to play,’ I’ve done way too much. 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***,” Embiid said after a 76ers practice the day before the incident. “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. I’ve done way, way too f***ing much. Like I said, I wish I was as lucky as other ones but that doesn’t mean that I’m not trying and I’m not doing whatever it takes to be out there, which I’m gonna be pretty soon.”
