James Harden and Joel Embiid Address Wild Game 3 Officiating

Posted on by Christian Grantham
Embiid Claxton

The 76ers Game 3 win over the Nets has been marred by a bizarre series of officiating calls.

Early in the game, MVP frontrunner Joel Embiid blatantly kicked Nic Claxton’s groin area from the ground.

Claxton stood over Embiid following an alley-oop dunk, which Embiid clearly didn’t appreciate.

The referees did assess the play but allowed Embiid to stay in the game. The was kick deemed a flagrant foul penalty one instead of a flagrant two, which would’ve seen him get ejected.

After the game, Embiid was of course asked about the incident, to which he replied: ā€œIt takes me a lot to process the games after..I gotta go watch the tape.

ā€œI honestly didnā€™t remember the play.ā€

The decision to let him stay in the game was crazy by the refs, especially considering the events that conspired earlier this week when Warriors star Draymond Green was ejected then suspended for stomping on Domantas Sabonis – a very similar incident.

“I think it’s the same thing from the other night,” O’Neal said on TNT’s coverage.

“This is where I have a problem, what is the law? It looks the same. Draymond kicked down, he kicked up. What’s the rule?

“I’ve seen something like this the other day, but the guy was ejected and suspended.”

“I think his is worse than Draymond’s,” Charles Barkley added.

Later in the game, 76ers guard James Harden was ejected just before the end of the third for a hit on Royce O’Neal. Claxton was also ejected after picking up his second tech foul.

Harden said after the game that the ejection was “unacceptable”. Ā ā€œI didnā€™t even think it was a foul on meā€¦that just, that canā€™t happen.ā€

NBA Twitter shared similar views to Barkley and Shaq on Embiid’s kick:

 

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