Absent from the courts since the start of the season, Joel Embiid will have to wait a little longer before making his return. The American-Cameroonian pivot from Philadelphia, MVP in 2023, was suspended three games for shoving a journalist, the NBA announced Tuesday.
References to his deceased son and little brother
After the 76ers game on Saturday, Embiid took on a reporter from the locker room. Philadelphia Inquirer who had recently written an editorial critical of him. The latter criticized the pivot for his lack of professionalism and involvement, which can still pass, but he referred in his article to the player’s son and his deceased little brother. Which, we understand, went less well.
“The next time you talk about my dead brother and my son, you will see what I am going to do to you and… I should take the consequences,” Joel Embiid told the journalist.
“While we understand that Joel may have been offended by the personal nature of the first version of the reporter’s editorial, interactions should remain professional on both sides and should never become physical,” commented Joe Dumars, vice president of the NBA cited in the press release.
The American League specifies that Embiid’s suspension will begin during the next regular season game for which he is “available and ready to play”, and that he will be deprived of salary during his suspension. A gold medalist this summer at the Olympic Games with the United States, Embiid, whose career has been marred by injuries, missed the 76ers’ first six games, citing problems with his left knee, for which he had surgery in February.
