The Philadelphia 76ers have been fined $100,000 by the NBA for “violating league injury reporting rules” in Joel Embiid's return from his meniscus procedure, the league announced.
When the Sixers first shared their injury report for Tuesday night’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Embiid was listed as out. From the time it was released late Monday afternoon and all throughout the day of the game, his status remained unchanged. Then, two hours ahead of tip-off, he was upgraded to questionable and ended up playing.
“The 76ers failed to accurately disclose the game availability status of Joel Embiid prior to their game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on April 2,” the league's announcement reads. “Embiid was listed as ‘Out’ in Philadelphia’s initial injury report and subsequently played in the game. The fine takes into account the 76ers’ prior history of fines for violating injury reporting rules.”
76ers fined for initially ruling Joel Embiid out vs. Thunder
The 76ers were previously fined $75,000 for essentially doing the inverse in January. Embiid was hastily ruled out of their matchup with the Denver Nuggets despite not being listed on the injury report leading up to the game. As the NBA's announcement pointed out, Philadelphia was dinged more because of previous infractions.
Prior to the Sixers' matchup with the Thunder, it was reported that Embiid could potentially return for that game. The fact that he was ruled out suggested that he would instead target Thursday's game against the Miami Heat despite it being on the road. Yet, Embiid was upgraded just ahead of the head coaches' pregame media availability, went through his warm-ups and made his return.
Embiid has now played two games after missing 29 straight, leading the 76ers to wins over the Thunder and Heat as they look to avoid the play-in tournament. He played 29 minutes in his return and 32 minutes the next time out, scoring 24 and 29 points respectively.
The Sixers are currently the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference but are within a game of sixth place. They have five more games left but two of them come on back-to-back nights. Embiid will use however many games left that he can play to get back into game shape before the postseason.
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