"Fans feel like it's okay to just say F somebody!" - Joel Embiid on his fan treatment and why Toronto fans might have been mad at him, also discusses the elbow incident with Pascal Siakam
Joel Embiid made one of the all-time great returns in NBA playoff history. Despite carrying a right orbital fracture, Embiid cleared league concussion protocols to make a triumphant return to the Philadelphia 76ers after sitting out the first two games of the Eastern Conference semifinals series.
The big man put up 18 points and 11 rebounds to motivate the 76ers to their first win against the Miami Heat. Inspired by their starting center's return, the 76ers restricted Miami to just 79 points while scoring 99 themselves in a 20-point Game 3 victory.
Embiid suffered his injury in a close-out game against the Toronto Raptors in the first round. After emphatically dunking the ball in the closing minutes of Game 6, Embiid was elbowed to the face by Pascal Siakam on the very next play, which resulted in a fracture.
Toronto fans celebrated the moment even as Embiid clearly writhed in pain from the injury. Raptors' loyalists saw the moment as some kind of karmic justice after Embiid had mocked their team with an airplace celebration following his one-handed rim-rocker.
Joel Embiid spoke his mind about the fan reaction in Toronto to his injury and whether the Siakam play was deliberate following Philadelphia's Game 3 win on Friday. He said:
"I don't know. I don't think it was intentional. That's my guy [Siakam], obviously. Its unfortunate. I don't think he meant to do it. But I was more irritated by the perception of when that happened, really their fans."
He added:
"I've always thought they've had great fans, but it kind of changed my mind about their fans up there. Whether it was throughout the series, the F chants and all that stuff, that's cool. It never gets to me anyways, but I think they got mad because I did the airplane celebrations."
"If you give it, you also got to be able to take it," says Joel Embiid, expecting better fan behavior in the future
Joel Embiid also had some advice for fans around the league. Speaking about the fan hostility around the league, he said:
"It's been going on in a few arenas these days, where fans feel like it's okay to just say F somebody. There's a bunch of kids in the arena, I don't think that should be okay even if there wasn't kids. But it's almost like, if you respond to it, it's almost like, in the Draymond situation, the league fines you."
Embiid concluded his remarks by saying:
"So to me, it doesn't bother me. I'm just speaking for really everybody in the NBA. If you give it, you also got to be able to take it. And I've said it about our fans too, when they boo, if the players are going to go back, you got to be able to take it too."
Here's the full Embiid response on the treatment he got in Toronto, and some takes on how the league handles players cursing and/or going back and forth with fans: https://t.co/KpnS3bIhGq