"The Phantom of The Process" is officially back, and he has not forgotten the incident that put him in this position in the first place.
Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid returned to action during Friday’s win over the Miami Heat in Game 3 of their second-round playoff series. It was Embiid’s first game since he suffered a concussion and an orbital fracture during the previous playoff series against the Toronto Raptors.
After Friday’s game, Embiid took a shot at Raptors fans, who cheered his injury and also serenaded him with “F– Embiid” chants during the series.
“I always thought they had great fans but it kind of changed my mind,” said Embiid, per Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice. “I think they got mad because I did the airplane celebration.”
Embiid is referring to the arms-out gesture he did after hitting a bucket to put the 76ers up 29 points in the series-clinching Game 6.
Raptors forward Pascal Siakam elbowed Embiid in the face on the very next play, causing Embiid’s injury and leading to the cheers from Toronto’s fans. Even the Raptors announcers were happy to see Embiid take a hit at the time.
Embiid did already have some bad memories in Toronto after suffering the most painful defeat of his career there on Kawhi Leonard’s bounce-around 3 in the 2019 playoffs. As for the Raptors fans, Embiid’s injury was not the first time that they cheered in the playoffs when an opponent got hurt.
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