The NBA has fined the Philadelphia 76ers $100,000 for how they handled Joel Embiid's return to the court, the league announced Friday. The official press release, included below in full, notes that the heftiness of the fine is a result of the Sixers' history of violating league rules pertaining to injury reporting.
The NBA announced today that the Philadelphia 76ers have been fined $100,000 for violating league injury reporting rules.
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. 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.
Leading up to Philadelphia's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, several reports indicated that Embiid could be available to play for the first time since Jan. 30. Embiid had surgery to address an injured meniscus in his left knee in February.
Embiid, however, was not present at the Sixers' morning shootaround. As the game approached, the Sixers continued to list him as out, just as they had for more than two months, all the way up to the 5:30 p.m. ET injury report.
At 5:49 p.m., the team announced that Embiid's status had been upgraded to questionable. Five minutes later, ESPN's Adrian Wonarowski reported that Embiid was expected to play. The news only became official when Philadelphia submitted its starting lineup 30 minutes before tipoff, as every team is required to do.
As for the Sixers' "prior history" of such violations:
- On Feb. 1, the NBA fined them $75,000 for not reporting Embiid's knee soreness before he was a late scratch in a nationally televised game against the Denver Nuggets.
- On May 7, 2022, the NBA fined them $50,000 for a situation that resembled Tuesday's. Embiid had missed the first two games their series against the Miami Heat, and they "failed to disclose" his status "in an accurate and timely manner" before he returned in Game 3.
- On Jan. 11, 2021, the NBA fined them $25,000 for sitting Ben Simmons at the last minute against the Nuggets due to what then-coach Doc Rivers described as knee stiffness after not including him on the injury report leading up to the game.
