Joel Embiid is yet to play a game because of knee injuries this season. Still, he is now serving a three-game suspension for his recent incident with a reporter in the 76ers’ locker room. The domineering center shoved Marcus Hayes for something he wrote in his column. “They can do whatever they want,” the Philly star allegedly said. The league understood his frustrations, but Joe Dumars expressed “mutual respect” as the grounds for his punishment.

To the common eye, it’s hard to compute Embiid’s reaction. However, those with personal boundaries elapsed by the media felt rage too. Austin Rivers, having been considered a legacy player and even playing under his father, Doc Rivers had such an experience with an ESPN reporter.

“He wrote some bul—t article about my personality and how I walk around the practice facility and he’s calling me like a whiny tyrant, like just completely out of bounds, out of line stuff when he’s never been in our locker room, and never had conversations with me personally. And it started a lot of stuff when I was there,” he said.

The column written went “viral” as per the former Nuggets guard. Even though not true, it created an impression of Rivers’ demeanor that should never have existed. “I really wanted to bump into him for like years,” he further said on The Ringer’s Real Ones. However, he didn’t want to get into any physical confrontation. The now 32-year-old was looking for an explanation since they had never had a conversation with the ESPN employee to put something across as such.

It did disturb him a little. Even Doc Rivers shared his son’s frustrations. “It was a very hurtful thing to do. I remember it pi–ed me off, it pi–ed my pops off,” he added. The intriguing thing is that Rivers did get a chance to confront him once. However, it never went through like it did with Joel Embiid.

Joel Embiid is going through something different

Years after the article, Austin Rivers got the chance to sit right by Michael Eaves, the person he identified for his article. They sat for a SportsCenter segment and the only thought that ran through his mind was to say something. However, in that moment, Rivers decided not to indulge but rather bury the past. But he also addressed another stinging reality. “Because even though it’s a very insensitive article, again, it’s nothing like what Joel’s going through,” he admitted. Why so?

Just like Rivers, Embiid shared some prior frustrations with Hayes. The reporter had questioned his credibility for Philly sports, which The Process responded to. The only angering factor was the correlation between his late brother and son Arthur to his game. That smudged the personal boundaries the media is expected to maintain with players.

In the past, the 76ers ace has never responded likewise to any personal criticism that the media might have thrown at him. But when his family was put in the mix, he was left irate. Understandably, an altercation will always be considered an excessive reaction because of its violent nature. Hence, the three-game suspension from the league seems to be a fair punishment for Embiid where things could have been a lot worse. Do you agree? Let us know your views in the comments below.