For about 24 hours, Grant Williams recklessly running full steam into Jayson Tatum was the center of NBA controversy. Then Saturday night happened.
There was no follow-up from the Celtics in Charlotte. The night rolled by with barely a hint of animosity from the Boston side. The game ended, both teams fulfilled their media obligations, and everyone left without incident.
That could not be said in Philadelphia, where Joel Embiid got into a physical altercation with a columnist.
The Sixers are off to a rough start this season, falling to 1-4 after a loss to the Memphis Grizzlies Saturday night. Neither Embiid nor Paul George have played yet, and while they're not expected to miss a lot of time, every loss they pile up early makes climbing out of the hole they're digging more difficult.
It won’t be easy to go on a sustained winning streak when it’s been made clear that Embiid will miss a lot of time in order to stay healthy.
The Sixers simply can’t risk him being limited, or worse, not being ready for the playoffs. Embiid is 30, but his body has already been through so much. He doesn’t have a lot of time left to be his usually dominant self. If the Sixers are ever going to cash in on “The Process,” they have to do it quickly. And to do that, he has to be as healthy as possible in April.
Meanwhile, the Sixers have already been fined $100,000 for misleading the media about Embiid's availability. All along, the vibe out of Philadelphia was that Embiid was progressing without setbacks, which made it a surprise when he was ruled out of their opening night game.
Few expected him to miss the start of the season, so when he did, he was opened up to criticism. I, as one of Embiid’s vocal critics in the media, will raise my hand as a participant in that chorus. I wrote “It seems like once Embiid got his MVP, he was cool with everything. Now he’s totally on board with missing a bunch of time. He says he wants to win, but his actions have never convinced me that's true.”
I think that's a fair hit. I do think Embiid prioritized his personal achievements to the detriment of his team. That might have changed now, but only because he got his MVP.
Maybe I’m right. Maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know.
What I do know is that Marcus Hayes, columnist for the Philly Inquirer, took things way too far. While leveling similar criticisms of Embiid’s availability over the years, he wrote “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. Embiid has been great at just the opposite.”
All of us in the business probably have a regrettable phrase or two on our resumes, but invoking Embiid’s son and late brother to make the point about playing basketball is among the worst decisions I’ve seen a writer make. Worse, his editor allowed that to stand. The words were published even though they probably should not have, and Embiid was furious.
Accounts from inside the locker room Saturday night describe an obscenity-laced confrontation between Embiid and Hayes, lasting approximately two minutes, and ending with Embiid shoving Hayes before people intervened.
The Sixers needed a drama-free start to their season so they could focus on challenging the Celtics at the top of the East and the first couple of weeks have been the exact opposite.
George got hurt in the preseason, Embiid isn’t ready to play, the team lied about how hurt Embiid was, a media member went too far in criticizing Embiid for it, and Embiid went too far in his response.
You just can’t assault someone over this, even if some people might think Hayes deserved it.
Now the NBA is investigating, and Embiid faces the possibility of an extended suspension. It’s hard to say how long he might be out considering the NBA’s recent history of fairly lenient punishments, but even a 10-game suspension would push Embiid to miss about 20% of the season before he even debuts. And given that he’s going to miss more time all year long, the Sixers could be looking at up to half a season without their star player.
And it’s their own fault. Their decision to be misleading about Embiid gave them no tactical advantage in any of their games. All it did was create confusion and put their star in a tough spot. Their decision to be coy instead of straightforward created this environment. It opened Embiid to harsh criticism, especially because of his history and reputation.
Hayes took it way too far and crossed lines in the process. There is no doubt about that. But this should have been addressed by the Sixers’ PR staff. They should have known the temperature of the room before Hayes stepped into it. Hayes did what a reporter should do when penning a harsh criticism of a player; he showed up in case there was a response. But the team never should have left this interaction to chance. They easily could have arranged a one-on-one, off-the-record interaction somewhere in that building.
Instead, they let someone walk into a room full of gas with a lit match.
This is par for the course in Philadelphia. The Sixers have been their own worst enemies since Sam Hinkie’s process began. The tanking was too hard, the replacement GM was too online, and their superstar has been too brittle and sensitive. Every time they seemed to be on the verge of a breakthrough, they stubbed their toe somehow, either by finding themselves in a PR mess or by making boneheaded personnel decisions.
It didn't have to come to this, but that's been said about a lot of what’s happened to that team. What happened in Philly Saturday night was a bad look for a lot of people, but it’s not shocking that it happened to the Sixers.
