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Joel Embiid offers profane criticism of referees after Sixers’ loss to Celtics

Joel Embiid will be hearing from the league office very soon.

Sixers' Joel Embiid reacts to a no call foul by Celtics' Al Horford during the 4th quarter at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Tuesday, February 12, 2019. Celtic brat the Sixers   112-109.
Sixers' Joel Embiid reacts to a no call foul by Celtics' Al Horford during the 4th quarter at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Tuesday, February 12, 2019. Celtic brat the Sixers 112-109.Read moreSTEVEN M. FALK / Staff Photographer

Joel Embiid will be hearing from the league office very soon.

Following the 76ers’ 112-109 home loss to the Celtics on Tuesday, Embiid capped off his postgame interview by leaning into the microphone and making his thoughts heard loud and clear. After answering the final question of the night he got in four parting words.

“The referees [expletive] suck," he said before getting up to leave.

The league has no problem handing out fines for public criticism of the officials, even when the criticism isn’t as blatant or pointed. But, as NBA commissioner Adam Silver said last season while in London, coincidentally for a Sixers-Celtics contest, the fines don’t mean much when they are levied against multi-millionaires.

“We recognize that the fines — while nobody likes to lose the money — in many ways are more symbolic than anything else when you have players as wealthy as they are,” Silver said.

The inevitable penalty that will be coming down will come as no surprise to Embiid. He knew exactly what he was doing and did it with intent. Embiid struggled to get into a rhythm for most of the game and there were a few non-calls that were a questionable, but most of Embiid’s frustration likely comes from one play in particular late in the game.

With 33 seconds left to play Embiid went straight at Al Horford and swung his arms around as he went for a jump shot. Despite Horford’s arms coming down on Embiid’s during the shot the official didn’t call a foul. At that point the Sixers were trailing by two points, 106-104, and had a chance to tie. Instead, Embiid missed the shot and Marcus Smart found his way in the lane for a dunk on the other end.

Embiid’s post-game f-bomb wasn’t the only case of profanity the league had to deal with on Tuesday. During the TNT broadcast of the Sixers-Celtics game, Kevin McHale called someone a “d---head”.

I guess there’s one thing we can take away from this and that’s that there is never a dull moment in the NBA.