Joel Embiid clearly believes that the Philadelphia 76ers got the short end of the stick this weekend.
Embiid’s Sixers were forced to play their game against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday despite being severely shorthanded due to a positive COVID-19 test by guard Seth Curry. Philadelphia effectively had only seven players for the game. Forward Mike Scott was injured but had to dress so that the Sixers could meet the eight-player minimum for the contest to proceed.
On the contrary, the NBA postponed Sunday’s scheduled Boston Celtics-Miami Heat game. This was because contact tracing had left the Heat with fewer than eight available players. A game earlier in the season between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets was also postponed for similar reasons.
Less than an hour after news broke of the Celtics-Heat postponement, Embiid tweeted the following apparent shots at the league.
There is some added context to mention here. The Sixers and the NBA have been somewhat at odds ever since former GM Sam Hinkie’s blatant tanking efforts from 2013 to 2016. Commissioner Adam Silver essentially strong-armed the Sixers into hiring NBA company man Jerry Colangelo (who later hired his son Bryan to replace him). That ultimately led to Hinkie’s exit from the team. Embiid was one of the high draft picks who resulted from Hinkie’s “Process” and has always remained a Hinkie loyalist. Embiid did not get along with the Colangelos either.
As for the present day, Saturday’s game did see a heroic effort by this Sixer. Regardless, however, Embiid still thinks that something fishy is going on here.
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