The Philadelphia 76ers' Game 3 win over the Brooklyn Nets featured a whirlwind of controversies. None of them were bigger than Joel Embiid's flagrant 1 call after kicking Nic Claxton square in the junk. The Sixers superstar was not ejected from the game, leading to confusion and scorn from all over the sports world, including Shannon Sharpe.
Sharpe said on Undisputed that the calls between James Harden and Embiid should have been flipped. Harden should have gotten a flagrant 1 for his physical but not-unreasonable contact against Royce O'Neale while Embiid should have been thrown out for a play that was far from being a basketball move.
“James Harden deserved a flagrant 1, Skip, because he was making a basketball play. What he was trying to do was get a guy's hands off of him…That's not a basketball play. You're laying on the floor, you kick up. That's not a basketball play, it's unnecessary and it's excessive,” Sharpe said.
Embiid wasn't apologetic about the incident after the game. He said after the Sixers' win that the Nets game plan, in his eyes, was simply to get under his skin and put him in a position to get ejected. Sharpe took issue with Embiid saying that he simply went about his business and that he was too mature to put himself in a position to get ejected.
“You kicked a guy. So how were you going about your business?” Sharpe said. “Theoretically, they did what they set out to do. If what you're saying is true — they were trying to hit you, get you frustrated, get you out of your game to get ejected — it worked! Because you kicked a man. Is that what you normally do in a game?”
The Nets getting physical with Embiid has been their plan all series long. They have used a variety of defensive tactics to make life hard for Embiid. Brooklyn head coach Jacque Vaughn said that he wanted his players to “hit somebody” and they did just that, holding the big fella down but failing to stop his teammates from going off.
The Sixers lead the Nets 3-0 and will face them on Saturday afternoon.
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