The Philadelphia 76ers have officially incurred the wrath of the NBA.
The league announced on Thursday that they are fining the 76ers $75,000 for violating league injury reporting rules stemming from last Saturday’s game against the Nuggets. The release states that the league took into account Philadelphia’s prior history of fines for violating injury reporting rules.
Additionally, the NBA announced in the same release that the New Orleans Pelicans were fined $25,000 for a similar recent violation with forward Trey Murphy III.
On Philly’s end, the fine was the result of a controversial late no-show by star center Joel Embiid in last weekend’s matchup in Denver against the Nuggets and fellow MVP rival Nikola Jokic.
Though Embiid was actually injured (he exited the 76ers’ prior game against Indiana with a knee issue), the 76ers did not list him on their injury report at all and instead made him a late scratch just minutes before the game started. The saga even sparked calls from Nuggets coach Michael Malone for the league to investigate the 76ers.
Unfortunately for Embiid, he received plenty of backlash from fans and the media for supposedly “ducking” Jokic (which may have been a factor in why he rushed back to play on Tuesday against Golden State and got hurt again).
In reality, though, the blame belongs to the 76ers for not disclosing Embiid’s situation properly on their injury report. As the league cited in their release, Philly has also committed similar violations in the past.
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