Joel Embiid, the current league MVP, made his way back into the Philadelphia 76ers starting lineup on Tuesday night, sending a message to the rest of the NBA. His presence was immediately noticed, even if it would take some time for him to settle back into the routine and build rapport with his new teammates.
The 76ers continued their winning streak against the Oklahoma City Thunder, defeating them 109-105. For the squad, which is stranded in the NBA Play-In Tournament and presently sits in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, it was a significant win.
The NBA is aware of the circumstances surrounding Embiid’s return to the starting lineup, though. The league will look into how it happened that Embiid was playing after being ruled out on Monday, according to TNT’s Jared Greenberg.
For the 76ers, it was “a wild 30 hours,” as Greenberg revealed. Embiid was reportedly close to making a comeback, with Tuesday’s game against the Thunder being the intended night. He was, however, ruled out of that Monday night’s game by the 76ers.
Since Embiid did not participate in the team’s Tuesday shootaround, that appeared to be accurate. Nevertheless, Embiid was inexplicably upgraded to doubtful 90 minutes prior to the game’s scheduled start time. He was playing against Oklahoma City and in the starting lineup, and the rest is history.
According to Greenberg, when he discussed the Embiid scenario with both current and retired players, their reactions were exactly the same. According to Greenberg, “They all say they’ve never heard of something like this.”
The 76ers had already been afoul of the NBA once before over how they handled Embiid’s injury announcement. Before their game against the Denver Nuggets on January 27, they were fined $75,000 earlier in the season for “failing to include Joel Embiid on the team’s injury report in an accurate and timely manner.”
When the 76ers have played the Nuggets this season, Embiid has missed every game. He was scratched minutes before tipoff, which made for an odd circumstance at the time. This one is peculiar as well since, should any misconduct be discovered, the NBA may punish the team again.