'No love lost': Simmons caught up in 'disrespectful' act

Opponents are mad at Joel Embiid.

Forgive us if you’ve heard this one before.

On Monday, the Philadelphia 76ers centre delivered a vicious elbow to Jarrett Allen’s face on a move to the basket in Game 2 of a playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets.

Embiid picked up a flagrant 1 foul for the blow, but remained in the game as the 76ers rolled to a 145-123 win to tie the series at 1-1.

Embiid laughs while apologising

After the game, Embiid and teammate Ben Simmons had a good chuckle over the incident as Embiid gave his version of an apology for hitting a man in the face with his elbow.

Nets not feeling Embiid

Some Nets players are feeling salty over Embiid’s response.

“We didn’t really like that,” Nets guard Caris Lavert told reporters.

“We thought that was kind of disrespectful, especially after the elbow he threw. It is what it is. There’s no love lost. It’s a playoff series. We expect that.”

Embiid said in that apology that the elbow wasn’t intentional before Simmons couldn’t contain himself at the idea of Embiid showing remorse.

“I got him pretty good, and I’m sorry about it,” Embiid said, prompting Simmons to look down and snicker as he sat next to him during the postgame news conference. Embiid went on to laugh out loud before explaining that “I’m not usually humble, that’s why he’s laughing” while pointing to Simmons.

No, Embiid isn’t a humble man

This is true. Embiid isn’t usually humble, and anything that sounds like an apology for something that happened on the court was definitely off-brand for one of the game’s preeminent trolls.

We were caught off guard just as Simmons was.

But just because Embiid usually jokes and trolls doesn’t make laughing about potentially injuring somebody’s head a laughing matter according to Nets forward Jared Dudley.

“I felt a certain type of way for it just because you’re laughing, and someone could have really gotten hurt,” Dudley said. “Now, luckily, J did pop up. That’s been Embiid’s personality, but just because it’s your personality doesn’t mean it’s right.”

Kurucs: ‘Dirty play’

Nets forward Rodions Kurucs, who picked up his own flagrant foul shortly after Embiid’s for elbowing Simmons in the mouth, took Dudley’s criticism a step further, calling Embiid’s play dirty.

“[Embiid’s] was a pretty dirty play in my opinion,” Kurucs said. “Dirtier than mine, 100 percent. Because I didn’t do it on purpose, and I saw he did it on purpose. So I feel he was laughing about that.”

Here’s Kurucs’ swipe at Simmons so you can judge for yourself.

Desired effect?

Regardless of whether Embiid’s elbow was intentional or his apology sincere, he has his opponents thinking and talking about him two days after the incident while practicing.

So mission accomplished.

We’ll have to wait to see if the move had the desired effect or whether it backfires in the form of a fired-up Nets for Game 3.

Jason Owens – Yahoo Sports US