Joel Embiid has taken responsibility for his actions. David Dennis Jr. is still waiting for Marcus Hayes and the Philadelphia Inquirer to do the same.
The Around the Horn panelist and EPSN personality may be waiting a bit, as TMZ revealed Wednesday that Hayes will continue covering the 76ers despite his recent controversial column that led to a physical confrontation with Embiid.
The deeply critical and personal column sparked a locker room altercation between Embiid and Hayes, resulting in a three-game suspension for the 2023 NBA MVP.
Embiid, feeling that he had done too much for Philadelphia to be disrespected in this way, called out Hayes by name. Days later, he confronted the columnist, escalating to the point where teammates and security had to intervene.
Hayes has since published three columns, all on the Eagles, as Embiid prepares to make his season debut against the Knicks after his suspension.
Now, all eyes are on Hayes’ future coverage of the 76ers, and particularly Embiid.
Dennis acknowledged the NBA’s necessary response on Wednesday’s Around the Horn.
For @AroundtheHorn I had thoughts in the Embiid suspension and putting hands on people who disrespect your family pic.twitter.com/Cpu6D7hvbN
— David Dennis Jr. (@DavidDTSS) November 6, 2024
“Two things can be true here: One, the league absolutely has to suspend Embiid,” Dennis said. “You can’t have a precedent of players putting their hands on journalists. The other thing that’s true here is I don’t know many people, myself included, who wouldn’t be compelled to want to put hands on somebody who wrote in a published article something about my child and my deceased sibling. Like, that is just a human interaction that is hard to say that I’m going to be peaceful in that situation.”
He also raised a question about journalistic accountability or lack thereof.
“We’ve seen what the NBA has done to Embiid; we’ve seen the punishment,” he continued. “My question, then, is what about the journalist? What about the Inquirer? What about the institution of journalism that allowed somebody to write a paragraph that actually is not necessary in that article? You can take that paragraph out, and the same point gets across. It was put in there to be incisive and to draw the ire of Embiid.
“Who’s going to talk to the journalists about this? What happens to the editors, the copywriters? There is a long list of people who approved something that disgusting that’s being put on paper. And something needs to be done about that, whether it’s access to the locker room or their own version of apology, because that’s unacceptable.”
It might be unacceptable, but Dennis doesn’t expect the NBA to wade into the waters here, leaving any form of credential revoking up to the 76ers and the Inquirer, for that matter.
“The NBA doesn’t necessarily have that ability, but somebody within that journalistic organization has to take responsibility,” he said.
