“The next time you bring up my dead brother and my son again, you are going to see what I’m going to do to you and I’m going to have to.” – These were Joel Embiid’s exact words that he uttered during his physical altercation with Marcus Hayes, a sports columnist. While the Sixers team and teammate Nicolas Batum’s wife called out Hayes for going beyond journalistic boundaries, NFL legend, Shannon Sharpe, who has shaped his career into a sports analyst, backed the columnist. More importantly, he criticized the big man.

Before going into the stretches of Sharpe’s criticism, it’s important to know what exactly Hayes wrote in his column. The 41-year-old reflected on how Embiid has panned out in the last 8 seasons after he had sworn to leave a legacy after the tragic passing of his brother in a road accident during his first season in the NBA. Hayes pointed out how Embiid ” consistently points to the birth of his son Arthur”, who is named after his late brother as a major inflection point of his basketball career.

Marcus Hayes didn’t just stop there. He further pointed out how Embiid hasn’t reached anywhere closer to his ambition and instead, he has “consistently been in poor condition”. Moreover, Hayes blamed the “poor condition” for his delay in making his season debut. It’s a pretty controversial way to correlate the star’s past to his current fitness. Nevertheless, Shannon Sharpe, in the latest episode of Nightcap, backed the columnist for the story.

However, as soon as Chad Johnson, the co-host, listened to the context, disagreed with Sharpe’s standpoint and said, “Is that necessary?… Is that even necessary to provide a context?” Johnson argued that Hayes could’ve critiqued without bringing in the “legacy part,” but on the other hand, Sharpe had a unique angle to counter it.

Sharpe reasons why Joel Embiid was wrong in the Marcus Hayes controversy?

Shannon Sharpe continued to back Hayes, saying that he had given the context for bringing his legacy angle into his article. Most importantly, he also added how stories are important, saying, “Sports is about stories.” However, Johnson didn’t seem to be convinced by the response, as he asked, “You don’t think that’s a little insensitive?”

Again, Sharpe didn’t seem to back down from his stance, as he said, “I don’t take it as being insensitive that’s Joel, how he took it,” and he also clarified that he can’t decide how Embiid can react. Unc further added, “Being in the media… we say things and we think it’s innocent and to us it is but to the individual…” And proceeded to put it on the big man, saying, “I think, it had more to do with the criticism about Joel constantly missing games, Joel Embiid constantly being out of shape, I think, that rubbed Joel Embiid the wrong way.” 

Nevertheless, Johnson defended the Cameroonian baller for one last time, saying, “He can’t help it. It’s a big man. That’s a big man.” But Sharpe simply countered it, saying, “Is he bigger than Shaq?” 

Well, Joel Embiid isn’t exactly as big as Shaquille O’Neal but he sure did have an entirely different journey and injuries in his career. It’s just unfair to compare two players from different eras. Anyway, Embiid recently addressed how the Sixers fans have failed to recognize his efforts for the city, saying, “I’ve broken my face twice. I came back early with the risk of losing my vision. I have broken fingers, I still came back. When I see people say he doesn’t want to play, I’ve done way too much for this city, putting myself at risk for people to be saying that.” Do you think Embiid can silence his critics with his return? Let us know in the comments.