The 76ers will be without Joel Embiid at least for the next three games, and as relayed by Marc Stein of The Stein Line, his NBA suspension comes as no surprise.
Embiid angrily shoved and threatened a Philadelphia sports columnist over the weekend. The Sixers (1-5) visit the Clippers on Wednesday night.
“A three-game suspension without pay for Joel Embiid sounds about right,” Stein wrote. “My instinct, in the Adam Silver Era, has been to brace for suspensions to land on the shorter side, so I must admit that I expected a one- or two-gamer tops … even though Embiid reportedly added a fairly ominous verbal threat to his reported shove of Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes.”
Basically, the league made its stance on the athlete/reporter boundaries pretty clear.
“For Embiid to be forced to miss three games and lose out on more than $1 million in salary sends out a pretty strong message to the entire league: You can’t put your hands on a media member even if the reporter/columnist/pundit writes or says something that many consider to have strayed beyond the bounds of acceptable,” Stein wrote.
Embiid was reportedly set to make his season debut for Wednesday’s game. Now, it appears that debut will come in the Sixers’ NBA Cup opener vs. the Knicks on Tuesday.
As for the columnist, no, the league has no say in any punishment for him.
“I’ve heard (and understand) the fury coming from Sixers fans who openly question why Hayes can dodge punishment while Embiid is forced to miss more game time, but the reality is that the league has zero jurisdiction over the columnist’s content,” Stein wrote. “Only his paper does.”
- More Sixers | All coverage from Hoops Wire
Looking for the latest NBA Insider News & Rumors?
Be sure to follow Hoops Wire on TWITTER and FACEBOOK for breaking NBA News and Rumors for all 30 teams!
