Sixers

The Nets Don’t Seem Happy With Joel Embiid’s Elbow and Related Media Comments

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Apr 17th, 2019 · 4:03 PM EDT

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Game three in Brooklyn tomorrow night.

The Nets had media availability today and said some things about the wicked elbow Joel Embiid struck Jarrett Allen with on Monday night, the Shaquille O’Neal spin move that resulted in Joel receiving a flagrant 1. After the game, Embiid and Ben Simmons started laughing after Joel offered up an apology:

"I got him pretty good and I'm sorry about it."

Joel Embiid cracks up after apologizing for his flagrant elbow to Jarrett Allen's face. pic.twitter.com/Hk1A3tH96B

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) April 16, 2019

“I’m not usually humble, that’s why he’s laughing,” Embiid explains at the end of that clip.

You might recall that Rodions Kurucs was also given a flagrant-1 when he got Simmons with an elbow a few possessions later, a play where he was boxing out Ben on a rebound attempt.

That video, after the jump:

https://twitter.com/TheRenderNBA/status/1117959474218663941

Kurucs called it a dirty play, the Embiid elbow, while Allen said he didn’t think there was “menace” behind it.

Stefan Bondy wrote this regarding Kurucs in the New York Daily News:

On Sunday, Simmons told the media in Philadelphia that he needs to be more aggressive when he’s guarded by Brooklyn’s Jared Dudley and “the other kid.” The Nets locker room assumed he was talking about Kurucs.

“I don’t like what he said in the media about me,” Kurucs said. “I want to let him know my name. I’ll play hard, I’ll go at him and I’m not scared of him.”

Still, Kurucs foul was much tamer than Embiid’s flying elbow–only one was considered for an ejection.

“I didn’t go dirty. I just trying to box out. He hit me, I was trying to hit him,” Kurucs said. “And the thing is my arms slipped and I got him in the chin.”

There were other tinges of annoyance emanating from Brooklyn today, as evidenced here:

Nets guard Caris LeVert on Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons laughing during Embiid’s post-game apology for his Game 2 elbow to Jarrett Allen: “We don’t really like that. We thought that was kind of disrespectful.”

— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) April 17, 2019

Begley said other Nets players “generally downplayed” the laughter while surmising that they may actually feel the same way as LeVert.

Jared Dudley on Embiid laughing at the podium: "I felt a certain type of way about it. Just because you’re laughing when somebody could’ve gotten really, really hurt. That’s been Embiid’s personality. But just because it’s your personality doesn’t mean it’s right."

— Stefan Bondy (@SbondyNBA) April 17, 2019

And finally this:

Jared Dudley dropping gems at media availability: "Ben Simmons is a great player in transition. And once you get him into halfcourt, he's average."

— Stefan Bondy (@SbondyNBA) April 17, 2019

Dudley isn’t wrong there. The Sixers only scored four transition points in game one, and he was a big reason why, getting back and clogging up the lane while playing good defense against Simmons. Ben only scored two points on 22 possessions against Dudley in game one while the veteran missed game two with a calf issue.

Should be a good one tomorrow night.