Culture
Joel Embiid shoves columnist in 76ers locker room, per sources; NBA to investigate the incident
By David Aldridge, Tony Jones and Sam Amick
Philadelphia 76ers star center Joel Embiid shoved a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist in the Sixers locker room Saturday night, multiple league sources confirmed to The Athletic. The physical altercation occurred after Embiid and the columnist, Marcus Hayes, argued following Philadelphia’s 124-107 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
Hayes, a longtime columnist for the Inquirer, and previously, the Philadelphia Daily News, recently wrote a column that Embiid considered personally disparaging to him and his family, which Embiid expressed to reporters after Friday’s practice.
In part, Embiid said he had done “way too much for this f—–g city to be treated like this.” The column in question, written Oct. 23, brought up Embiid’s son and his brother, Arthur, who died in a car crash at age 13 in 2014, a tragedy that Embiid has said on multiple occasions almost caused him to stop playing basketball. Embiid’s 4-year-old son is named Arthur, after his brother.
Embiid has yet to play in a game this season, one that has begun with a 1-4 start without Embiid and star forward Paul George, including Saturday’s loss.
Hayes went to the game Saturday and entered the team’s locker room after the game ended. Embiid sought him out, and their conversation soon deteriorated.
Hayes did not respond physically to Embiid’s shove, a team source said.
An NBA spokesman said Saturday, “We are aware of reports of an incident in the Sixers locker room this evening and are commencing an investigation.”
Embiid’s playing status this season has been a consistent source of conversation and frustration for the team and the seven-time All-Star, who has been injured every postseason for the past several years, a contributing factor to the franchise failing to get out of the second round of the playoffs during his tenure. Embiid and the 76ers have worked on a potential plan for the center to be able to play in the regular season but play fewer games to try to keep him healthy for the postseason.
Embiid had surgery on his left knee last February, which kept him out for much of the second half of the 2023-24 regular season. He returned for a first-round playoff series against the New York Knicks and was noticeably hobbled throughout the series. The Knicks won it in six games.
But Embiid played in the Paris Olympics for Team USA this summer, serving as its starting center, and appeared to be healthy. In 76ers training camp, though, minor swelling was discovered in his knee, and Embiid has been shelved since.
Hayes has written multiple columns in the last week-plus that have been harshly critical of Embiid, chiding him for his poor conditioning coming into the season after playing in the Olympics, and knocking Embiid for his numerous absences over the years.
“The degree of contempt Embiid has for his organization, for his industry, and, especially, for the fans who pay him all of his money is utterly flabbergasting,” Hayes wrote in an Oct. 23 column in the Inquirer. “Because fans buy the tickets, and fans watch TV, and fans buy the products on TV that are advertised. Embiid’s part of the bargain is to show up and play basketball. But he doesn’t even bother to be in good enough shape to hold up this part of the bargain.
It is incredible dereliction of duty. It is entirely unacceptable.”
In initial versions of the column, Hayes wrote this:
“Joel Embiid consistently points to the birth of his son, Arthur, as the major inflection point in his basketball career. He often says that he wants to be great to leave a legacy for the boy named after his little brother, who tragically died in an automobile accident when Embiid was in his first year as a 76er.”
That paragraph was taken out of later versions of the column that ran online.
This past Wednesday, after the NBA fined the 76ers $100,000 for what it called “inconsistent” statements from the team regarding Embiid’s health status, Hayes criticized Embiid again. Hayes suggested the team offer refunds to fans who bought tickets in good faith for home games this season, only to learn that Embiid would likely miss several games during the year to avoid playing in back to backs.
“Furthermore, it’s highly unlikely that Embiid will play in all of the ensuing home games, even if they’re not back-to-backs; after all, he’s missed 46 percent of regular-season games since the Sixers drafted him in 2014,” Hayes wrote. “So it’s fair to assume that he’ll miss 10 home games, none of them due to injury. That’s about 25 percent of what every full season-ticket holder paid for.”
On Friday, Hayes again criticized Embiid after Embiid clapped back against the criticism, saying he’d “done way too much for this f—–g city to be treated like this, so I’ve done way too f—— much.”
GO DEEPER
Joel Embiid to critics: ‘I’ve done way too much for this f—— city’
In his Friday column, Hayes acknowledged Embiid’s MVP award, as well as his having carried the franchise, and said Embiid “might wind up being the best player in franchise history. But, unlike Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, Moses Malone, and Allen Iverson, to name a few, Embiid’s teams have not advanced past the second round of the playoffs. And while Embiid has played through injury and sickness in the postseason, well, he’s not the only one. Here’s a thought: Be in better shape when the playoffs roll around and it won’t be so hard to play with any injuries that crop up.”
Embiid, 30, is in his 10th season with the Sixers, who drafted him with the No. 3 pick in 2014. He missed his first two NBA seasons due to a right foot injury, surgery and re-injuring his foot. But he began to assert himself in his third pro season and hasn’t looked back since, becoming the face of the controversial rebuilding plan the Sixers undertook that became known as “The Process.”
In eight seasons, Embiid has averaged 27.9 points, 11.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 433 regular-season games. But he’s been plagued by lower-body injuries throughout his career, many of which occurred either late in regular seasons or in playoff series.
After the Sixers made public comments about their plan to keep Embiid out of back-to-back games this season and then held him out for a nationally televised game against Milwaukee on Oct. 23, the NBA launched an investigation that ultimately confirmed the concern about his left knee.
GO DEEPER
NBA fines 76ers for misrepresenting statements regarding Embiid’s absence
If the league had discovered that Embiid was, in fact, healthy and that the Sixers had decided to prioritize the playoffs while routinely resting him during the regular season, then the league’s hammer would have certainly fallen hard. But league sources told The Athletic that Embiid’s left knee, in the eyes of the NBA and the Sixers, was unstable enough that there was concern about further damage being done if he had played in these opening games to the regular season.
The league still fined the 76ers $100,000, but it was due to the public statements.
Required reading
(Photo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
new video loaded: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects
By Jennifer Harlan, Sadie Stein, Claire Hogan, Laura Salaberry and Edward Vega
December 18, 2025
“Window seat with garden view / A perfect nook to read a book / I’m lost in my Jane Austen…” sings Kristin Chenoweth in “The Girl in 14G” — what could be more ideal? Well, perhaps showing off your literary knowledge and getting a perfect score on this week’s super-size Book Review Quiz Bowl honoring the life, work and global influence of Jane Austen, who turns 250 today. In the 12 questions below, tap or click your answers to the questions. And no matter how you do, scroll on to the end, where you’ll find links to free e-book versions of her novels — and more.
On Dec. 16, 1775, a girl was born in Steventon, England — the seventh of eight children — to a clergyman and his wife. She was an avid reader, never married and died in 1817, at the age of 41. But in just those few decades, Jane Austen changed the world.
Her novels have had an outsize influence in the centuries since her death. Not only are the books themselves beloved — as sharply observed portraits of British society, revolutionary narrative projects and deliciously satisfying romances — but the stories she created have so permeated culture that people around the world care deeply about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, even if they’ve never actually read “Pride and Prejudice.”
With her 250th birthday this year, the Austen Industrial Complex has kicked into high gear with festivals, parades, museum exhibits, concerts and all manner of merch, ranging from the classily apt to the flamboyantly absurd. The words “Jane mania” have been used; so has “exh-Aust-ion.”
How to capture this brief life, and the blazing impact that has spread across the globe in her wake? Without further ado: a mere sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness Austen has brought to our lives. After all, your semiquincentennial doesn’t come around every day.
By ‘A Lady’
Austen published just four novels in her lifetime: “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Pride and Prejudice” (1813), “Mansfield Park” (1814) and “Emma” (1815). All of them were published anonymously, with the author credited simply as “A Lady.” (If you’re in New York, you can see this first edition for yourself at the Grolier Club through Feb. 14.)
Where the Magic Happened
Placed near a window for light, this diminutive walnut table was, according to family lore, where the author did much of her writing. It is now in the possession of the Jane Austen Society.
An Iconic Accessory
Few of Austen’s personal artifacts remain, contributing to the author’s mystique. One of them is this turquoise ring, which passed to her sister-in-law and then her niece after her death. In 2012, the ring was put up for auction and bought by the “American Idol” champion Kelly Clarkson. This caused quite a stir in England; British officials were loath to let such an important cultural artifact leave the country’s borders. Jane Austen’s House, the museum now based in the writer’s Hampshire home, launched a crowdfunding campaign to Bring the Ring Home and bought the piece from Clarkson. The real ring now lives at the museum; the singer has a replica.
Austen Onscreen
Since 1940, when Austen had a bit of a moment and Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier starred in MGM’s rather liberally reinterpreted “Pride and Prejudice,” there have been more than 20 international adaptations of Austen’s work made for film and TV (to say nothing of radio). From the sublime (Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning “Sense and Sensibility”) to the ridiculous (the wholly gratuitous 2022 remake of “Persuasion”), the high waists, flickering firelight and double weddings continue to provide an endless stream of debate fodder — and work for a queen’s regiment of British stars.
Jane Goes X-Rated
The rumors are true: XXX Austen is a thing. “Jane Austen Kama Sutra,” “Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen” and enough slash fic and amateur porn to fill Bath’s Assembly Rooms are just the start. Purists may never recover.
A Lady Unmasked
Austen’s final two completed novels, “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion,” were published after her death. Her brother Henry, who oversaw their publication, took the opportunity to give his sister the recognition he felt she deserved, revealing the true identity of the “Lady” behind “Pride and Prejudice,” “Emma,” etc. in a biographical note. “The following pages are the production of a pen which has already contributed in no small degree to the entertainment of the public,” he wrote, extolling his sister’s imagination, good humor and love of dancing. Still, “no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen.”
Wearable Tributes
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan wants to find other Jane Austen fans, and what better way to advertise your membership in that all-inclusive club than with a bit of merch — from the subtle and classy to the gloriously obscene.
The Austen Literary Universe
On the page, there is no end to the adventures Austen and her characters have been on. There are Jane Austen mysteries, Jane Austen vampire series, Jane Austen fantasy adventures, Jane Austen Y.A. novels and, of course, Jane Austen romances, which transpose her plots to a remote Maine inn, a Greenwich Village penthouse and the Bay Area Indian American community, to name just a few. You can read about Austen-inspired zombie hunters, time-traveling hockey players, Long Island matchmakers and reality TV stars, or imagine further adventures for some of your favorite characters. (Even the obsequious Mr. Collins gets his day in the sun.)
A Botanical Homage
Created in 2017 to mark the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death, the “Jane Austen” rose is characterized by its intense orange color and light, sweet perfume. It is bushy, healthy and easy to grow.
Aunt Jane
Hoping to cement his beloved aunt’s legacy, Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published this biography — a rather rosy portrait based on interviews with family members — five decades after her death. The book is notable not only as the source (biased though it may be) of many of the scant facts we know about her life, but also for the watercolor portrait by James Andrews that serves as its frontispiece. Based on a sketch by Cassandra, this depiction of Jane is softer and far more winsome than the original: Whether that is due to a lack of skill on her sister’s part or overly enthusiastic artistic license on Andrews’s, this is the version of Austen most familiar to people today.
Cultural Currency
In 2017, the Bank of England released a new 10-pound note featuring Andrews’s portrait of Austen, as well as a line from “Pride and Prejudice”: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” Austen is the third woman — other than the queen — to be featured on British currency, and the only one currently in circulation.
In the Trenches
During World War I and World War II, British soldiers were given copies of Austen’s works. In his 1924 story “The Janeites,” Rudyard Kipling invoked the grotesque contrasts — and the strange comfort — to be found in escaping to Austen’s well-ordered world amid the horrors of trench warfare. As one character observes, “There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place.”
Baby Janes
You’re never too young to learn to love Austen — or that one’s good opinion, once lost, may be lost forever.
The Austen Industrial Complex
Maybe you’ve not so much as seen a Jane Austen meme, let alone read one of her novels. No matter! Need a Jane Austen finger puppet? Lego? Magnetic poetry set? Lingerie? Nameplate necklace? Plush book pillow? License plate frame? Bath bomb? Socks? Dog sweater? Whiskey glass? Tarot deck? Of course you do! And you’re in luck: What a time to be alive.
Around the Globe
Austen’s novels have been translated into more than 40 languages, including Polish, Finnish, Chinese and Farsi. There are active chapters of the Jane Austen Society, her 21st-century fan club, throughout the world.
Playable Persuasions
In Austen’s era, no afternoon tea was complete without a rousing round of whist, a trick-taking card game played in two teams of two. But should you not be up on your Regency amusements, you can find plenty of contemporary puzzles and games with which to fill a few pleasant hours, whether you’re piecing together her most beloved characters or using your cunning and wiles to land your very own Mr. Darcy.
#SoJaneAusten
The wild power of the internet means that many Austen moments have taken on lives of their own, from Colin Firth’s sopping wet shirt and Matthew Macfadyen’s flexing hand to Mr. Collins’s ode to superlative spuds and Mr. Knightley’s dramatic floor flop. The memes are fun, yes, but they also speak to the universality of Austen’s writing: More than two centuries after her books were published, the characters and stories she created are as relatable as ever.
Bonnets Fit for a Bennett
For this summer’s Grand Regency Costumed Promenade in Bath, England — as well as the myriad picnics, balls, house parties, dinners, luncheons, teas and fetes that marked the anniversary — seamstresses, milliners, mantua makers and costume warehouses did a brisk business, attiring the faithful in authentic Regency finery. And that’s a commitment: A bespoke, historically accurate bonnet can easily run to hundreds of dollars.
Most Ardently, Jane
Austen was prolific correspondent, believed to have written thousands of letters in her lifetime, many to her sister, Cassandra. But in an act that has frustrated biographers for centuries, upon Jane’s death, Cassandra protected her sister’s privacy — and reputation? — by burning almost all of them, leaving only about 160 intact, many heavily redacted. But what survives is filled with pithy one-liners. To wit: “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”
Stage and Sensibility
Austen’s works have been adapted numerous times for the stage. Some plays (and musicals) hew closely to the original text, while others — such as Emily Breeze’s comedic riff on “Pride and Prejudice,” “Are the Bennet Girls OK?”, which is running at New York City’s West End Theater through Dec. 21 — use creative license to explore ideas of gender, romance and rage through a contemporary lens.
Austen 101
Austen remains a reliable fount of academic scholarship; recent conference papers have focused on the author’s enduring global reach, the work’s relationship to modern intersectionality, digital humanities and “Jane Austen on the Cheap.” And as one professor told our colleague Sarah Lyall of the Austen amateur scholarship hive, “Woe betide the academic who doesn’t take them seriously.”
W.W.J.D.
When facing problems — of etiquette, romance, domestic or professional turmoil — sometimes the only thing to do is ask: What would Jane do?
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