Joel Embiid’s three-game suspension was justified, but the NBA still has a problem to solve
Three games is good for Joel Embiid.
A one-game suspension for the 2023 NBA Most Valuable Player who shoved a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist in a postgame incident on Saturday night would have been too light, a slap on the wrist for getting his hands on Marcus Hayes, no matter how incendiary the recent columns from Hayes would have been, or how insensitive Hayes was when he brought up Embiid’s late brother in a column last month. You still can’t deal with the media when they write or say things you don’t like. But five games or more would have gotten too much out of what wasn’t a punch, or punches. A shove is rude and a shock to the system, but even a shove from a 7-foot, 270-pound man won’t break bones or tear ligaments.
The suspension takes effect on Wednesday in Los Angeles, where the 76ers play against the LA Clippers. The team had hoped Embiid would finally make his season debut at Steve Ballmer’s $2 billion Intuit Dome. But now he’ll have to sit out three games, starting with the first one he’s eligible for and healthy. That means he could play in Philadelphia on November 12 against the New York Knicks on the first night of the Emirates Cup.
But what the suspension won’t resolve is the still-simmering rift between the NBA and its teams, which is becoming even sharper as the league embarks on its new 11-year, $76 billion extravaganza of a media rights deal that culminates in the 2025 season 2026.
Clearly, the NBA has heard the whining from its national TV partners, both current and prospective, about major players missing big games in the Tuesday through Friday evening windows for games broadcast by ESPN or TNT. The league was not enthusiastic then an ESPN story last month detailed the 76ers’ plans to keep Embiid out of back-to-back games during the regular season. When the league fined the team $100,000, it was said that the 76ers were “inconsistent” in their public statements regarding Embiid’s readiness for the regular season as he rehabilitated his left knee.
Come on. It was because Philly told the truth about its plans for its superstar center and for signing splash free agent Paul George during the regular season: They would be out of at least one end of most of the Sixers’ back-to-backs during the regular season are held. year.
The league has relentlessly strived in recent years to make the regular season more meaningful. The league’s player participation policy for the most individual top prizes in the competition, implemented in 2023, and the Emirates Cup were two big markers. But the biggest change was the NBA officially noting earlier this year that its own data from the past decade did not show that load management actually prevented injuries. It was a 180-degree turn from the long-held position, which NBA commissioner Adam Silver himself continued to argue into the 2023 All-Star Game in Utah, that the league’s teams had autonomy over when and how much players played. , based on the medical information they have collected about them.
That has changed.
You ask teams around the league and they will tell you that the NBA is not immune to the idea that teams need to manage their best players, and occasionally retain key players as well. But they need to be watched. She hate be surprised.
But the competition can’t have it both ways. It knows full well that its teams show no mercy to coaches and general managers who don’t win championships or consistently make the playoffs, and especially as more and more teams are bought by rarely patient hedge fund and corporate owners. Many people deride the Ringzz culture as outdated, and yet Embiid is still clowned for never taking his team to an Eastern Conference finals, let alone an NBA finals, in his eight active seasons. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have been big winners in Boston since they came to town, but they had to win a championship in Boston to be considered “real” Celtics, worthy of the team’s winning legacy.
Embiid has made hundreds of millions of dollars, including a $193 million extension in September. But he has rarely come into April and May healthy. One of the rare times he did that was when Kawhi Leonard, then playing in Toronto, eliminated Embiid and the Sixers in Game 7 of the 2019 Eastern Semifinals. A healthy Kawhi went on to lead the Raptors to their first NBA title , over Golden State.
Neither has rarely been this healthy in the postseason since. That’s the point.
If you’re the brains of Philadelphia, what’s more important: Embiid plays 60-70 games in the regular season and gets injured – as he does year after year – late in the regular season or in the playoffs? Or give yourself the best chance at a deep postseason run by keeping him in bubble wrap during the regular season? How patient will Josh Harris be with Daryl Morey or Nick Nurse if the Sixers don’t advance again due to Embiid limping into the second round against the Celtics, Knicks or Cavaliers?
Understand this: Keeping Embiid out of many regular-season home games isn’t fair to 76ers fans. They have to buy their tickets on faith, and most don’t have the disposable income to attend ten or more times a season. Often it is once or twice a year. Just as I bought tickets a few years ago to see Mos Def on Broadway in “Topdog/Underdog,” only to have him walk out with a migraine after a few minutes onstage, I have no answer for this. But most Sixers fans would certainly be fine with Embiid missing Tuesday or Friday nights in January if it means he takes center stage in May and June.
Embiid is certainly sensitive, and he always feels the pressure to try to live up to the hype of “The Process.” But the 76ers don’t think he has long-term emotional issues. A team source indicated Tuesday that the team considered this an isolated incident that escalated due to what the team said were “very personal” references to Embiid’s family, including his late younger brother Arthur, who was killed in a car accident in 2014 -accident at age 13; Embiid named his young son after his late brother. Hayes referenced both Arthurs in his Oct. 23 column criticizing Embiid.
In that column, Hayes initially led with the paragraph: “Joel Embiid consistently points to the birth of his son Arthur as the major turning point in his basketball career. He often says he wants to be great to leave a legacy for the boy named after his little brother, who tragically died in a car accident when Embiid was in his first year as a 76er. To become good at your job, you first have to show up for work. Embiid was great at the exact opposite.”
Hayes edited out that paragraph for later editions of his column and rewrote his speech, say in a message on X later today that he “can understand why so many people were angry about it.” Sorry about that.”
The Sixers believe the best way for Embiid to get out of his trouble is for their franchise player to finally get and stay healthy. In that sliver of space, the superstar, the team, and the league all share the same hope. The when is where the great divide persists, and will likely persist for the foreseeable future.
(Photo of Joel Embiid: Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
