The Philadelphia 76ers will be facing a financial penalty due to a breach of injury reporting regulations regarding Joel Embiid. The NBA announced a fine of $100,000 for the team, citing that they did not clearly communicate Embiid’s status before the game against the Atlanta Hawks on November 30th, which the 76ers lost in double overtime.
According to the league, while Embiid was initially marked as “out” in the injury report, he ended up playing in the game. The league’s report noted, “The 76ers did not accurately disclose Joel Embiid’s game availability prior to the game.” It’s been well-documented that Embiid’s career has been marred by injuries, and he was recently returning from a nine-game absence due to knee soreness. Despite this, he managed to score 18 points and logged a season-high 30 minutes on the court, but the team ultimately fell short, losing 142-134.
Post-game, Embiid expressed his feelings, saying it was like the first game of the season for him. He mentioned, “I’m just happy to have the opportunity to play the game of basketball. We build on that and move on from there to the next game. You don’t judge whether the shot falls or not. It’s about how you move laterally, jump, and all that stuff. Tonight was a good step toward that.”
Complicating matters, Embiid missed the following game against the Washington Wizards for what the team described as injury management. The NBA also indicated that the 76ers’ previous record of fines for similar violations influenced the decision to impose this latest fine.
It’s worth noting that the 76ers have faced scrutiny before; they had been fined multiple times in 2024 for issues directly tied to Embiid’s injury reporting. So, yeah, it looks like there’s a trend here.
