Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James is calling out members of the media in defense of reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid.
The star Philadelphia 76ers center caught heat over the past week for sitting out a Saturday night game against the Denver Nuggets and their center, Nikola Jokic. Many believed Embiid was “ducking” the nationally televised matchup.
However, Embiid had a knee injury. He missed both the Saturday game and the 76ers’ game on Monday. Embiid did play on Tuesday against Golden State, where he further injured his knee. Some felt that Embiid felt pressured by the media and goaded into playing Tuesday when he wasn’t quite ready.
Testing on Thursday revealed that Embiid had suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee and would likely miss significant time.
Following that news, James sprung into action.
“Where are all the media outlets, tv media personalities, hot takes that talked so much s–t about Joel Embiid about missing those games when he knew what he was dealing with,” James posted on X (as censored by LBS).
“Now he’s out with an injury because of it. Not 1 person has went back on tv or their dumb–s podcast and apologized to that MAN!! No accountability. (Trash).”
James’ comments came less than 12 hours after Embiid’s injury news surfaced, allowing almost no time for corrections or retractions. James also chose to only target the lowest-hanging fruit, failing to address others, such as Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, who called on the league to investigate the no-show.
Coincidentally, James also chose to ignore the $75,000 fine levied against the 76ers for violating league injury reporting rules.
Back in reality, the perception that Embiid “ducked” the Nuggets falls squarely on the shoulders of the 76ers, who created that mess for themselves. They could have obeyed the rules and clarified what was going on long before the narrative was created. They opted to go in a different direction and without that knowledge, fans and members of the media reached their own conclusions.
And James is in no position to be lecturing anyone or throwing stones. He’s offered up plenty completely erroneous takes and embellishments of his own in recent years and has never bothered to retract them.
