76ers star Joel Embiid shoves reporter in heated altercation, per reports

Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid was involved in an incident with a reporter Saturday night.

ESPN's Shams Charania reported that Embiid was involved in an "altercation" with a Philadelphia columnist following the Sixers' 124-107 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, which dropped the 76ers to 1-4 on the season without Embiid (left knee injury management) and Paul George (left knee bone bruise) in the lineup. Charania and multiple reporters on the scene said Embiid shoved the columnist, who wrote a recent column that mentioned Embiid's son and late brother, amid a heated discussion.

Charania said on "SportsCenter" that the NBA is investigating the incident.

On Friday, Embiid called out the Philadelphia Inquirer's Marcus Hayes by name, along with other critics, who questioned his willingness to play after he sat out the beginning of the season to manage his left knee injury.

"I've broken my face twice, I came back early with the risk of losing my vision. I've had broken fingers. I still came back," Embiid said. "When I see people saying, 'he doesn't want to play,' I've done way too much for this city, putting myself at risk for people to be saying that. I do think it's (expletive), like that dude, he’s not here, Marcus (Hayes)."

(Hayes made mention of Embiid's son and late brother in a recent piece — since updated to remove those references, per UPROXX — critical of the Sixers' star.)

Embiid continued: "I've done way too much for this (expletive) city to be treated like this. Done way too (expletive) much. But like I said, I wish I was as lucky as other ones, but that doesn't mean I'm not trying and not doing whatever it takes to be out there, which I'm going to be here pretty soon."

Sixers reporter Kyle Neubeck relayed an eyewitness account of the incident on the PHLY Sports postgame show.

"The second that Joel realized (Hayes) was there, (they) got into a verbal back-and-forth," Neubeck said. "Obviously we can't repeat many of the words that were said; the basic gist of it was 'you can say I suck, you can say whatever you want about me as a player: don't ever put my dead brother's name in your mouth. Don't talk about my family. Don't bring them into this. You want to talk to me like a man and talk to me about basketball, that's different. But if you ever talk about my family again we're going to have real problems.'"

Neubeck said Embiid and Hayes continued to go back and forth, the exchange lasting roughly 90 seconds to 2 minutes, before Embiid shoved Hayes and security intervened.

Neubeck and AP reporter Kevin Cooney both said prior to the shove that Hayes offered up an apology that Embiid was not interested in. Cooney relayed that things seemed to escalate after Embiid said he didn't care about what reporters say and Hayes replied "But you do." The tensions culminated with the shove to Hayes' shoulder, Cooney said.

Embiid helped Team USA win gold at the Paris Olympics this summer. He did not participate in the Sixers' preseason and has missed the first five games of the season. Ahead of the season, 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey said the team is going to be "smart" about managing Embiid's health this year, telling ESPN, that "Paul (George) and Joel (Embiid) will probably not play many back to backs, if any."

Embiid has struggled with injuries throughout his career and was limited to only 39 games last season after he tore his meniscus in his left knee.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joel Embiid shoves reporter in heated altercation, per reports