Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid was said to have a physical altercation with columnist Marcus Hayes of The Philadelphia Inquirer following his team’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday.
Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports witnessed the incident and shared what he could.
“Marcus Hayes, who everyone knows, was on Joel’s radar this week — he gave a lengthy quote taking shots at him yesterday,” Neubeck said, referencing words Embiid had while talking to reporters (not including Hayes) on Friday. “Marcus was present in the locker room. And the second that Joel realized he was there, got into a verbal back-and-forth.
“Obviously, we can’t repeat many of the words that were said on this show. The basic gist of it was basically, ‘You can say I suck, you can say whatever you want about me as a player. Don’t ever put my dead brother’s name in your mouth. Don’t talk about my family. Don’t bring them into this. You want to talk to me like a man and talk to me about basketball, that’s different. But if you ever talk about my family again, we’re gonna have real problems. They go kinda back-and-forth. And at some point, let’s say 90 seconds to two minutes into this back-and-forth, Joel shoves him. Team security steps in. Players kind of surround the situation and everyone kinda dispersed.”
“You can say I suck, you can say whatever you want about me as a player. Don’t ever put my dead brother’s name in your mouth,” @KyleNeubeck describes Joel Embiid altercation with journalist https://t.co/CIorWx3NV7 pic.twitter.com/dIsDDaULZz
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) November 3, 2024
Hayes has written multiple pieces critical of Embiid, specifically calling out the star’s missed time. One passage in particular was shared on social media in the aftermath of the incident.
In case you don’t know what Marcus Hayes wrote about Joel Embiid the other day, here is the most salacious part.
If it was Hayes who Embiid popped then, hey man, I really do get it. pic.twitter.com/Cn9soKN54u
— Evan Spellman (@okayed) November 3, 2024
