2023 NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid was suspended by the organisation for three games after the Philadelphia 76ers’ center shoved a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist for writing about his son and late brother, while criticising his fitness. Embiid has yet to appear for the Sixers this season, with what the team is terming as left knee management. The USA Olympic team gold medal winner, who was set to earn $51.4 million this season, will now miss out on over $1 million in lost pay because of the suspension.
“Mutual respect is paramount to the relationship between players and media in the NBA,” the NBA’s head of basketball operations, Joe Dumars, said in a statement. “While we understand Joel was offended by the personal nature of the original version of the reporter’s column, interactions must remain professional on both sides and can never turn physical.”
The altercation happened on Saturday after the Sixers lost to Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies 124-107. An Embiid-less Philadelphia has slumped to a 1-5 record in the Eastern Conference and is one spot away from the bottom of the table. Embiid, taking offense to the column written, shoved the reporter and said, “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.”
The paragraph in the Philadelphia Inquirer that had aggrieved Embiid read like this: “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.”
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