Joel Embiid Reportedly Got Into An Altercation With A Philadelphia Inquirer Writer Who Disrespected His Family In A Hit Piece

The Sixers may have lost at home to the shorthanded Grizzlies to fall to 1-4 on the season, but none of that matters right now. What matters is that Joel Embiid is still finding to a way to make his presence known, although instead of doing that through playing basketball, he's doing it by getting into it with a Philly reporter.

OK, a quick backstory here for anyone who was spending their Saturday night out living their life. Out of nowhere, our timelines were hit with this tweet from Sixers beat reporter 

You see the words "assaulted a reporter" and you're thinking Embiid just whooped the shit out of some guy. That was some very vague reporting that certainly made it seem like Embiid punched a reporter, which…ya know…isn't great. It's kind of a huge deal. Then Shams followed up that it was just a shove and no punch, and while very different, is still a big deal.

So who was this guy? A few days ago, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes wrote this piece

In which he basically ripped Embiid to shreds. The only problem was how he initially started the piece, which is without a doubt one of the most insane things I think you could ever read in an article about an athlete

He immediately got destroyed for that complete dogshit, changed the lede and everyone sort of took their shots calling this dude an asshole before life moved on. 

It was interesting the next time we heard from Embiid was during this rant

and you could hear Embiid reference that reporter. It's not hard to imagine he hates that guy like poison, and for good reason. While we certainly can't have a world where players are getting into physical altercations with the media, at the same time I can't say I'm not on Embiid's side here. If you're going to say insane shit like that, be prepared for that player to come do something about it. 

Even if you're not the biggest Embiid fan, you have to understand his point of view here and frankly, I'm surprised it wasn't worse. You come at a guys family like that for no reason, I feel like all gloves are off at that point. 

I can't imagine the league office is going to be all that happy, so it wouldn't shock me if Embiid gets hit with a fine and maybe a suspension. I'm really not sure we've ever had a situation like this, at least not that I can remember. How violent was the shove? When can we expect the video to leak? Do we need to get Woj on the case? Did they have to be separated in some sort of brawl?

As of now, there are only more questions than answers that I'm sure will be sorted out over the next few days. The NBA season man, there's truly nothing like it.