Joel Embiid’s Reporter Shove Nets Him 3-Game Suspension

NBA star center Joel Embiid received a three-game suspension from the league after shoving a reporter after a game over the weekend.

On Tuesday (November 5), the National Basketball Association announced that Philadelphia 76ers star center Joel Embiid would be suspended for three games after an altercation with Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Marcus Haynes after the team’s game last Saturday (November 2). The suspension means that he will miss the Sixers’ games against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Charlotte Hornets.

“Mutual respect is paramount to the relationship between players and media in the NBA,” Joe Dumars, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations, 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 incident was initiated because of Haynes’ column, which made a reference to Embiid’s late brother and his son, both named Arthur while questioning the center’s effort during the preseason and during his multiple absences during his career. Embiid, who was on the United States men’s Olympic team that won the gold medal in Paris this past summer,  has been out tending to minor swelling in his knee. “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,” Embiid said to Hayes when confronting him. 

Embiid, who was slated to make his season debut in the Lakers game, will instead appear with the Sixers as they square off against the New York Knicks on November 12, in the first round of the NBA’s in-season tournament now known as the NBA Emirates Cup. Haynes has apologized for the comments and removed them from the article, but Embiid rejected the apology.