“Fans can say f**k you but if you say it back, they fine you like they did Draymond Green”: Joel Embiid calls out double standards within NBA regarding verbal abuse

Joel Embiid calls out Raptors fans for yelling profanities and uses Draymond Green as an example for the double standards between players and fans. 

Replacing DeAndre Jordan with Joel Embiid in the starting center spot opened up quite literally everything for the Philadelphia 76ers. Embiid was finally cleared to play Playoff basketball against the Miami Heat tonight for Game 3 following him being placed in concussion protocols due to an elbow from Pascal Siakam in the previous series. 

When asked about the elbow he received from Pascal, Joel stood up for his fellow Cameroonian and said, “I don’t think it was intentional, that’s my guy, obviously. It’s 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.” 

Also read: “I’ll take Year 20 LeBron James over today’s James Harden any day!”: Skip Bayless brutally goes after the Sixers’ star for his abysmal Game-1 performance sans Joel Embiid

Joel Embiid proceeds to go on a rant about fans in the NBA today getting away with yelling all sorts of profanities at players with little to no consequences. 

Players get fined hefty amounts in the $10,000 to $50,000 range and the MVP candidate believes the scales are tipped a bit too much in the fans’ favor. 

Joel Embiid on the double standards that exist between fans and players. 

Joel Embiid does not appreciate the double standards that persist throughout the NBA between players and fans. He uses Toronto Raptors as an example for this and goes off on fans being allowed to yell ‘f**k you’ to any player they choose while the athletes have to stay quiet or else suffer a fine.

Also read: “We want to play against Joel Embiid, who I call the MVP”: Jimmy Butler seeks Sixers big man’s return as much as anybody else in Philadelphia

“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 weren’t any kids. But, it’s almost like, if you respond to it, it’s almost like, in the Draymond situation, the league fines you.” 

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: pic.twitter.com/KpnS3bIhGq

— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) May 7, 2022

Embiid would go on to say that he can take the boos but he wants to be able to hit back at them and not suffer financial consequences at the same time.