The Joel Embiid situation with the media sparked fire online, with many people supporting or not siding with the player. Some parts of the basketball fraternity admired him for his stance on wanting respect, while some believed pushing the media personnel was unnecessary. All in all, it became a hotbed of topics for podcasters and other media people to latch on to. One such podcast became the Gil’s Arena.

Notably, with multiple NBA players on the show, Nick Young, Kenyon Martin, Gilbert Arenas, and Brandon Jennings’ discussion turned hostile for a bit. Apparently, Embiid pushed Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes, after he referenced his late brother and 4-year-old son in a column aiming to criticize his performances. Although the column left a sour taste, Embiid shoved the reporter and wanted respect from the Philly nation as he was going through a lot, according to his interview.

It caught the Gil’s Arena’s former NBA players to have their take on the matter. Significantly, the heated debate happened when Brandon Jennings, a player who plied his trade for multiple franchises, brought 76ers legend, Allen Iverson, to the table. With injury talks of Embiid making rounds, Jennings wanted him to stop his excuses and start playing the game. Multiple reports emerged of Embiid suffering a knee injury, and other various injuries kept him out.

Thus, Jennings mentioned, “Like AI played through everything,” recognizing his talent. In comes Nick Young, saying, “Have AI ever played with half face?” The seemingly ordinary conversation quickly escalated into a full-blown disagreement between both parties. Jennings continued, “AI sucked it up, in the finals, 4-1, but I still f—ing did it.” To this, Martin came in hot to reply, “He didn’t play on one leg last playoffs? 

You see, Joel Embiid had a meniscus surgery and missed multiple games in the regular season. He did come in the playoffs but lost the series to the New York Knicks in the first round. Hence, most people said he played on one leg, the same point Martin referenced, towards Jennings.

Gil’s Arena debates on Joel Embiid’s availability and current fiasco

Following that, Martin and Jennings went on a war of words with the players trading jabs with each other. Martin believed the AI comparisons to Embiid were unfair while Jenning questioned, “What did he do for the city?” It’s a question that falls into our minds. We’re not taking any support between the two, but let’s state some facts.

For starters, both won the regular season MVP (Iverson in 2001, and Embiid in 2023). Notably, Iverson is an 11x All-Star and Embiid became a 7x All-Star. One is a lanky point guard while the other is a huge center. Safe to say, both played incredibly well for the 76ers. The only stat that edges Iverson over Embiid could probably be how he led them to the NBA finals in 2001, the same year he won the MVP.

With Gilbert Arenas saying, “No, that wasn’t the same year”, to AI’s MVP and finals run and other panel members disagreeing with this claim put forward by Jennings, we feel Brandon is on point there. AI, indeed, won the NBA MVP and made it to the finals in 2001. Yet, Embiid became the star of the show for the 76ers in recent times.

He has tried to take them to the playoffs and win the entire NBA championship but faltered at the last hurdle. Remember Kawhi’s game-winning shot that left Embiid in a state of disbelief? It became a hilarious, heated segment between the panel members as the Embiid saga went on.