NBA fines 76ers $100,000 over Joel Embiid injury report scandal

NBA

by Michael Brin

It cost the 76ers a whopping $100,000 to bring Joel Embiid back into action.

The NBA fined the Philadelphia team for failing to properly disclose the star center's status before Tuesday's game against the Thunder.

Embiid was listed as “out” on the 76ers' injury report for this game after missing the morning's shootaround, but was upgraded to “questionable” 90 minutes before tipoff.

The seven-time All-Star returned from a two-month absence following knee surgery and played 29 minutes, recording 24 points, seven assists, six rebounds and three steals in a 109-105 win. .

Unless teams are playing back-to-back games, teams are required to list the status of players whose participation could be affected by injury by 5pm local time the day before the game. The injury report will then be updated throughout his day.

The series of updates caught the attention of the NBA, which investigated the Sixers' handling of the situation.

This is the second time this season that the 76ers have been fined for injury report violations involving Embiid, with a fine of 75,000 on Feb. 1 for failing to “accurately and timely” list Embiid on his injury report. He was sentenced to a fine of $1. Game against the Nuggets.

The league took that into consideration in its evaluation of this week's incident.

Embiid, who is ineligible to be named MVP due to his long injury absence, was simply happy to be back after admitting that the injury took a toll on him.

“Usually when you get hurt, you tell yourself, 'Move on to the next injury. Get better and fix it,'” Embiid said. “This time has taken a toll on me mentally as well. I'm depressed. It hasn't been good. I'm still not where I need to be, especially mentally. But I just love playing. I love basketball and I want to play it. If I get a chance to play there, I'm going to take it.”

— with AP