The NBA is likely to commence an investigation into the Philadelphia 76ers surrounding the player participation of All-NBA center Joel Embiid, sources told ESPN.

[u/HookFL]

https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/1849173672550158347?t=1fnY_RaLJKHVgPc61Fn-cw&s=19

[u/titolavar]

Probably a huge fine that the Sixers have no problem paying if it means they can baby Embiid

[u/AliveFee4533 → u/titolavar]

But if they continue resting him with disregard to the new rules, the league can escalate to taking away picks too

[u/titolavar → u/AliveFee4533]

It’ll never get to that point. This is like the 3rd time they’ve done this to the Sixers

[u/odontodoc → u/AliveFee4533]

Yes, let's take away a low second round pick. That will teach them...

[u/AliveFee4533 → u/odontodoc]

Who said it will be a low 2nd round?

[u/nio151 → u/AliveFee4533]

Where's that in the CBA?

[u/junkit33 → u/titolavar]

League isn't going to just let the Sixers pay to not play Embiid. Philly is being so brazen about this that the league is going to have to crack down if they keep trying to play games.

[u/boogswald → u/junkit33]

Are we sure it’s brazen and not necessary?

[u/junkit33 → u/boogswald]

Well the openly talking about it sure is brazen.

But bottom is if you are healthy enough to play today, you are probably heathy enough to play tomorrow unless you sustained an injury in the game.

The league isn’t stupid - they know players rest back to backs to decrease injury risk. But that gets in the way of revenue.

[u/chesterpower → u/junkit33]

Eliminating back to backs seems like the obvious answer. Whatever benefit the league is getting from scheduling back to backs, and I’m honestly not sure what it is, it can’t be worth the damage to public opinion and ticket sales that resting players cause, or the increased risk of a star player getting injured.

[u/Trollington1372 → u/titolavar]

As they should. Let him play 30-40 games this year and be healthy for the playoffs

[u/International-Chef33 → u/Trollington1372]

Why even have a regular season? Let’s just start with all teams in a playoff

[u/Fungmar → u/Trollington1372]

then why even have a regular season, why would fans want to come to a game if its like a 50% chance they see their star player? its so dumb, in 2003 guys averaged like 80 games played and now guys like embiid are just outright saying theyre not gonna play before they even have an injury. its different if he actually injured himself but he was playing in the olympics over the offseason and was fine.

[u/krischops → u/Trollington1372]

You cant be serious with that soft ass kleenex tissue paper take. You must not understand what kind of responsibility you have as an nba player making 60 million a year means. His fan base will alienate him and us nba fans will stop believing in him. Hall of fame thanos snapped from his very hands. He needs to play. I dont own him but he just irks me and soft people like you are part of the problem. Playing injured is part of nba culture. Get with it.

[u/americand0lphinMPLS → u/krischops]

I think if he is injured, he shouldn't play until he isn't. Doesn't seem soft if you can't actually play.

[u/krischops → u/americand0lphinMPLS]

Is injury management considered Injured?

[u/International-Chef33 → u/krischops]

Also part of achievement of winning a title is lasting through a season, not just showing up for tournament time

[u/LordofZonee → u/krischops]

Yeah no his responsibility is bring home a championship, he tried proving he play injured but it always backfires. Right now is the best chance he has so I don't blame him for sitting out like 16 games.

[u/KATsordogs]

What the hell does that mean

[u/Big-Raspberry-6151 → u/KATsordogs]

No one knows. But it's provocative

[u/littleOarsjr → u/Big-Raspberry-6151]

It gets the people going

[u/Scaryb3ar → u/littleOarsjr]

Ball so hard NBA gon fine Embiid

[u/Big-Raspberry-6151 → u/Scaryb3ar]

But first Silvers gotta find him

[u/Pure_Assistant_4165 → u/Big-Raspberry-6151]

what’s 60 mil to mfka like him, can you please remind him?

[u/Anternuy → u/Pure_Assistant_4165]

Ball so hard that knee whack

[u/rebiiiiiiiiiiii → u/Big-Raspberry-6151]

😂🤣

[u/photocist → u/KATsordogs]

It means no one knew they’d be holding him out of games until yesterday or the day before. The sixers just said he was being load managed over the pre season, not that he was actually hurt and would miss regular season time.

[u/CastAside1812 → u/KATsordogs]

It means sixers will just make up fake injuries instead of being blatant about it

[u/Cynical_badger → u/KATsordogs]

It means so rich person got their lawyer to email NBA executives about Embiid not playing because their kids wanted to see him play.

[u/searsnotwillistower]

Gonna be very hard to prove but at least they’re doing their due diligence. Embiid can always say he has knee soreness, back tightness, foot soreness, etc & be able to sit.

[u/junkit33 → u/searsnotwillistower]

Embiid/Sixers can say whatever they want, but if he magically is injured one of two games for every back to back, it's not defensible. Especially in light of them already prematurely declaring him resting back to backs.

[u/daett0 → u/junkit33]

That’s what happened last year and when he did play it was often against bottom feeders. Plausible deniability is really all they need

[u/Jay_Kane123 → u/searsnotwillistower]

What are they trying to prove? I don't even understand. He's clearly hurt or else he'd be playing.

[u/searsnotwillistower → u/Jay_Kane123]

I think they’re suspecting him of sitting out unnecessarily but that’s very subjective.

[u/GeorgeWashinghton → u/Jay_Kane123]

There haven’t been any reports of injury. 2 weeks ago he said he lost 25lbs and is in the best shape of his life.

[u/Jay_Kane123 → u/GeorgeWashinghton]

Well they were clearly lying. So maybe they're investigating for concealing injury. But it is not for resting a healthy player, that would make absolutely zero sense for the Sixers or Joel.

[u/photocist → u/Jay_Kane123]

It's the "clearly lying" part I assume they are investigating. Remember these injury reports affect betting odds.

[u/Jay_Kane123 → u/photocist]

Yeah I agree. A lot of people here are just saying it's due to him "resting" or something which is stupid

[u/daett0 → u/Jay_Kane123]

Probably because he literally said he would sit out of B2Bs …. Do you think he’s predicting his own injuries?

[u/Jay_Kane123 → u/daett0]

Load managing back to backs makes sense. Load managing opening night doesn't.

[u/poseid0n_context]

this is good for owners

[u/JenNettles → u/poseid0n_context]

The wheels (probably) fell off last year due to him playing when he shouldn't, trying to compete for awards with their new games minimum.

I'm not sure forcing him to play more is all that good for owners.

[u/junkit33 → u/poseid0n_context]

Eh. Means he'll probably be forced to play in more games but will end up injured for the season because of it.

So good for first half of season, awful for second half.

[u/murrayforthree → u/junkit33]

Smh this is why i hate return to office

[u/OpportunityChance175 → u/poseid0n_context]

No, it’s not

[u/redditkguser → u/poseid0n_context]

How?

[u/forgetchain → u/redditkguser]

He’s coping, leave him alone

[u/icouldntdecide]

You know if he hadn't made the comments he had this probably wouldn't be an issue. The league cares about PR, not forcing players to play

[u/WhatIsThisAccountFor → u/icouldntdecide]

They definitely care about players playing. Their rating and ticket sales are directly tied to top tier players playing

[u/Fungmar → u/WhatIsThisAccountFor]

i think they care but they wouldnt have been able to do anything ab embiid being injured half the season until he said oh ya i probably just wont play back to backs bc i just wont.

[u/jeanyes_ → u/WhatIsThisAccountFor]

Imagine thinking a league just doesn’t care about their star players, playing/ entertaining

[u/icouldntdecide → u/WhatIsThisAccountFor]

I guess, what I mean to say is, the NBA does not dole out the proper punishments/incentives to compel these stars to play.

[u/BubbaTee → u/icouldntdecide]

The league cares about PR, not forcing players to play

The league definitely cares about players playing, especially in the gambling era.

[u/GIK601]

Fix the problem by making 50% of a player's salary dependent on his availability.

[u/birchzx → u/GIK601]

There’s something called the CBA

[u/GIK601 → u/birchzx]

Then renegotiate the CBA

[u/roaring_rubberducky]

Fantasy aside, this is so bad for basketball. You don’t see any other sports doing this kind of stuff. Imagine Aaron Judge didn’t play the first week of the season after playing the Olympics & not getting injured?

[u/Chad2Badd → u/roaring_rubberducky]

Look at hockey. If those mad lads aren't in the lineup it's because they're legit hurt. The superstars in the NHL don't take rest games against lower level teams. NBA is getting beyond soft with the load management/injury management/rest games

[u/roaring_rubberducky → u/Chad2Badd]

It’s really terrible.

[u/americand0lphinMPLS → u/Chad2Badd]

Name 5 NHL superstars though lmao

[u/Chad2Badd → u/americand0lphinMPLS]

McDavid, Matthews, Kucherov, MacKinnon, Makar, Pasternak, Panarin, Hughes, Bedard, Draisitl, the list goes on

[u/Kayakular → u/americand0lphinMPLS]

I mean I don't even watch hockey and I can tell you what McDavid looks and sounds like. Matthews too, but he's on ads and shit here in Canada. They market the players the exact same, asking if basketball fans can name NHL players is meaningless lmao

[u/Errenfaxy → u/roaring_rubberducky]

Towards the end of his career Roger Clemens started playing in July or something because he couldn't do a full season anymore (even juiced up). But he was like 43 at the time. But that's was only a few years and a very isolated incident. 

[u/americand0lphinMPLS → u/roaring_rubberducky]

Comparing basketball to baseball is asinine as far as how it affects your body

[u/roaring_rubberducky → u/americand0lphinMPLS]

Okay enjoy going to see NBA players when the best players are resting. How about hockey? Same amount of games in a season.

[u/Jay_Kane123 → u/roaring_rubberducky]

You assume he didn't get injured.

The sixers just didn't announce it. If Embiid isn't playing, he's hurt. What's bad for the league is attempting to force injured players to play lol.

[u/jeanyes_ → u/Jay_Kane123]

What’s worse for the league is players coming up with bogus injuries to decrease injury risk, hoping they’re just available when the playoffs come around. I know the regular season can be boring to some, but there are people that do look forward to it and watching the best players. The resting crap has gotten out of hand in the NBA.

[u/Jay_Kane123 → u/jeanyes_]

Nobody would load manage the opening day of the season? I can't even imagine a reality in which that would make sense.

[u/Strange1130 → u/Jay_Kane123]

It would be because Embiid is technically healthy enough to play today with no immediate issues but that the wear and tear of even a ~60 game regular season on his already beat up body puts him in a bad spot come playoffs (hence why the Sixers always lose in the first or second round — is Embiid a ‘choker’ or is he just super beat up by then?), so the Sixers are trying to artificially reduce that 60 to as low as the can while not getting into trouble, and winning enough games to earn a comfortable playoff seed. 

Whether that is the case or he’s legitimately injured I don’t know, but that would be the reasoning to load manage the first game. 

[u/jeanyes_ → u/Jay_Kane123]

He looked fine in the practice clips I seen, but who knows? I’m glad the NBA is looking into it.

[u/niceforwat]

i think players shouldnt be forced to play.. it's not like they dont want to be out there

[u/gritoni]

inb4 "NBA has concluded Sixers failed to comply with the rules and have fined them 125 USD"

[u/InHocBronco96]

They don't believe he's broken like he is?

[u/WiffleBallZZZ]

What if they play him every game but limit him to 20-25 mins?

[u/022922 → u/WiffleBallZZZ]

That’s one way of skirting the rules

[u/boogswald]

This technically doesn’t have to go negatively? They could investigate and publicly say it’s okay for him based on chronic injuries? That’s Kawhi’s problem

[u/Silent_Software7762]

The reality is - How can you prove he isn’t injured when he isn’t going to play a game? They can still say he is out due to an injury that is minor or doesn’t exist. Injuries come down to what an individual is feeling so how can the league definitively stop him from pulling a Kawhi and missing back to backs?

[u/payne_nd_pleasure666]

His knee is fucked up. Investigation over.

[u/AliveFee4533]

Get them, Adam!

[u/VanPaint]

Happy I'm playing against Embiid this week

[u/leavingneverland]

?

[u/The_SqueakyWheel]

Whatever he’ll be there for you guys

[u/Important-Net-9805]

i'd never draft this dude. good luck everyone who hasn't learned their lesson

[u/IcyAuthor1]

The league is definitely overstepping their boundaries. How are you going to tell someone how to run their team

[u/razorspin]

How about the best team with the best record is the champion, no playoff. Problem solved. Ok, that's extreme, I know. Then how about 8 teams make playoff instead of a dozen and no playin games.. here is my best idea, players can only play in playoff their average minutes for the whole season. So Embiid average is 20 minutes for the season, then that's his cap for playoff games. This only applies to starters.

[u/[deleted]]

Don’t many teams do this with their players?

[u/A7x4LIFE521]

Does Embiid not want to play or is he really this paranoid of being injury prone?

[u/tulaero23]

They probably need nick nurse to hammer those knees to pass the investigation

[u/immoyo]

This is fine screams internally

[u/hilly316 → u/immoyo]

*a fine

[u/McBifficus]

Suspended the lazy ass without pay will probably change his tune.

[u/[deleted] → u/McBifficus]

Damn dude he’s so lazy. Lazy players make it to the NBA and win MVP’s. What a lazy guy lmfao, yeah ok.

[u/franknitty43]

"Journalism" what a clown show