“Thought It Was Some Sort of Joke”: Brian Windhorst Admits He Thought Joel Embiid’s Christmas Injury Scare Wasn’t Serious

One of the lesser talked about games on Christmas Day was the Philadelphia 76ers’ unlikely win at the TD Garden. While the game itself didn’t garner a lot of attention, an incident pregame had fans on social media in stitches. Joel Embiid had an injury scare during pre-game warmups that seemed so unlikely that even Brian Windhorst was questioning what was going on.

On ‘The Hoop Collective’ podcast, the ESPN analyst admitted to being unsure if the news about Embiid’s injury was a hoax or not at first. He spoke to Tim Bontemps about it, who was in Boston for the match, and saw Embiid’s unlucky fall over a security guard’s foot. The two joked about how disastrously unlucky the former MVP has been this season, saying,

“Joel Embiid ended up playing in that game, but I gotta tell you, when I saw that video, I almost thought it was some sort of joke. That Joel Embiid could’ve got hurt warming up on Christmas. It only could’ve happened to Joel Embiid let’s just put it that way.”

But while the two joked about Embiid’s bad luck, some fans online weren’t happy with the Cameroonian, as they believed he had flopped for his injury. These emotions were compounded by his facial injury, which he picked up during a routine play against the Pacers two weeks ago.

Fans trolled Joel Embiid for “flopping” in warmups

When the 76ers were warming up for their big game, Embiid, after taking a three-pointer, seemingly got tangled up in a security guard’s foot and took a tumble. He was clutching his ankle, much to the annoyance of fans online, as they claimed his fall was his fault entirely.

They took to Twitter to call him out for this, claiming he only got injured because of his tendency to flop.

https://twitter.com/Dan2022223/status/1872039822707359786

But this wasn’t the first instance of online hatred for Embiid. After his facial injury against the Indiana Pacers was revealed to be a sinus fracture, Twitter accounts blamed it on him and claimed that his dirty ways as a player were what was causing his extensive injuries this season.

Life came at embiid fast, dirty ass player.

— The Real (@TheRealGrindNY) December 14, 2024

While it’s true that Embiid has built a reputation as a player who tends to flop or indulge in slightly dirty plays from time to time, he has never once been given the grace he deserves. Just last year, he received a diagnosis of Bell’s Palsy during the playoff series against the Knicks.

He powered through, trying his best to ensure that the 76ers would make it through to the 2nd round, but unfortunately fell short after being ruled out due to injury.