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“LeBron James deserved a flagrant 2”: Joel Embiid adamant that Lakers star should have been ejected for hard foul prior to Tobias Harris game winner

Amulya Shekhar
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"LeBron James deserved a flagrant 2": Joel Embiid adamant that Lakers star should have been ejected for hard foul prior to Tobias Harris game winner

Joel Embiid minced no words on LeBron’s flagrant foul call tonight despite the Sixers bagging the game with a Tobias Harris shot.

The Sixers and the Lakers played out one of the most exciting games of the season thus far tonight. The Sixers took the lead early in the game and had it for nearly the entire length. But they ceded it at the worst possible time – with 11 seconds remaining in the game.

However, Tobias Harris got them out of jail with a clutch play to take a fadeaway 2-pointer that swished. This left the Lakers in their own backcourt with 2.4 seconds remaining and no timeouts left. The Sixers held on for a famous win that should not have been as close as it went.

Also Read: ‘Jokic, Embiid, Giannis better than Steph Curry?’: Nick Wright slammed for controversial player’s pyramid, roasted for placing LeBron James at the top of the pile

With 5:44 left in the 3rd quarter, Embiid expertly spun around Marc Gasol and went up for a dunk. He was shoved with both hands by LeBron James, who received a flagrant foul call for his troubles.

Joel Embiid wanted LeBron James ejected for dangerous play

Embiid gave a candid post-game presser. He emphasized how he wasn’t able to play to his strengths in the 4th due to his back issues. Embiid said these issues stem from the hard foul James committed on him, stating that James deserved to be ejected for dangerous play on that occasion:

“You look at it, that’s a very dangerous play, and I guarantee if it was me I would have probably been ejected from the game.”

On first look, the foul did look bad. However, replays showed that James did not apply force while fouling Embiid. The thing about NBA rules though, is that there is little room for interpretation in this specific scenario. The rulebook clearly states that an intentional bump on a player in the air is tantamount to ejection.

Also Read: “LeBron James is a b**** for shoving Joel Embiid”: Skip Bayless rips apart Lakers star for stopping Embiid from posterizing him with flagrant foul

Realistically speaking, however, no reffing crew would have liked to face the heat that would’ve come their way for ejecting LeBron James on a night when he was on a hot shooting streak. LeBron finished with figures of 34/6/6 on 12-of-22 shooting for the night.

About the author

Amulya Shekhar

Amulya Shekhar

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Amulya Shekhar is a sports junkie who thrives on the thrills and frills of live sports action across basketball, football (the American variant works too), parkour, adventure sports. He believes sports connect us to our best selves, and he hopes to help people experience sports more holistically.

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