NBA’s Joel Embiid Takes Shot At Bill Simmons Over ‘F*ck Jalen Green’ Comment After Losing MVP Race

The Philadelphia 76ers are not having a good time right now. Down 3-2 in the Eastern Conference Semifinals after being dismantled by the Miami Heat in Game 5, 120-85. To make matters worse, their star Joel Embiid currently has a fractured face, torn ligaments in his shooting thumb, and no MVP trophy after losing again to Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets.

Safe to say Embiid is not happy at the moment, taking Tuesday night’s postgame press conference to congratulate Jokic on back-to-back regular season titles before turning on the NBA media for its voting protocols.

“I guess every year is all about whatever you guys decide, whatever fits the narrative as far as who’s going to win,” Embiid said postgame.

It’s the second time in as many years for Embiid to come away the runner-up for the MVP of the league so you can understand his frustration and lack of trust for the voters, calling out Bill Simmons specifically for his Jalen Green comment earlier this year.

“I go back to what I saw, or what I heard on a podcast,” Embiid continued. “About Bill Simmons basically saying, he sounded like he had a grudge against somebody saying ‘fuck Jalen Green.’ So, if you’re going to allow these type of people to vote for these awards, that’s not fair.”

The comment Embiid is referring to happened in an April episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast when Simmons was hypercritical of Green by not including him on his All-Rookie team this season.

“Fuck Jalen Green,” Simmons said. “I don’t care you’re scoring 40 points and your team’s 19-60. Congratulations…I’m sorry. I like winning players, I’m sorry.”

Simmons’ hot take of Green generated a lot of attention from the NBA world, including players like Embiid who echoed the message Tuesday that voters shouldn’t be responsible for player’s salary limitations based on bias.

“What if Jalen Green was in a position to earn a supermax, or I don’t know, an All-Star appearance?” Embiid counted to rant. “And you got someone sounding like that. He has a lot of power. He can sway a lot of other media members. You got someone saying that type of stuff, I don’t think it’s fair. I don’t think it’s OK.”

To be fair Simmons should have used better vernacular than “fuck” said player but if you dissect the podcast more closely, he didn’t take shit at Green as a person or his potential, moreso that his team was one of the worst in the league, which was correct.

Regardless, Embiid is clearly letting his frustrations boil over as he has been plagued with injuries his whole career and can’t seem to stay fully healthy for his team to make a deep run in the playoffs.

Oh well, there’s always next year Joel.