1. I despise the overused Twitter phrase “This didn’t age well,” but today we have a story about something that truly did not age well.
As every NBA fan knows, Sixers superstar Joel Embiid is currently out of the playoffs after suffering an orbital fracture and concussion late in Philly’s first-round clinching win against the Raptors on Friday.
Embiid had just scored a basket to give him 33 points on the night. After that, he went into his signature airplane celebration.
For some reason, this really pissed off Raptors analyst Jack Armstrong.
“That’s bush league,” Armstrong said while Embiid was airplaning. “Come on. That’s just bush league.”
A player celebrating his performance in a blowout, series-clinching win is actually not bush league and it’s certainly not a big deal, but if Armstrong wants to embarrass himself with that absurd commentary, he has every right.
However, Armstrong took things even further after Emiid took an elbow to the face from Pascal Siakam with about four minutes left in regulation and the Sixers up 119–90.
“You get what you deserve,” said Armstrong.
Armstrong’s out-of-touch commentary continued: He went back to referencing the airplane celebration and connected it to Embiid’s getting injured, “That’s just uncalled for. Be a good sportsman. You know what it is? Karma’s a you-know-what.”
Now, let me be very clear. Obviously, Armstrong did not know Embiid had suffered an orbital fracture and concussion at the time he made his comments. If he knew what the damage would end up being, maybe he wouldn’t have said those dumb things. Maybe he would’ve. Who knows.
Regardless, Armstrong’s commentary was pathetic.
It was also severely warped. Let’s try to follow Armstrong’s logic here: Embiid doing an airplane celebration = bad sportsmanship. Man gets elbowed in the face for celebrating = he deserves it. O.K., sure.
From getting all worked up over Embiid’s airplane celebration, to saying Embiid “deserved” an elbow to the face to then saying Embiid’s pain was “karma,” this was broadcasting at its worst.
2. Happy 50th birthday to The Rock, who recently surprised fans who were checking out his wax figure at Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas.
3. The first round of the NFL draft was down by more than two million viewers from a year ago.
While lack of star power among the prospects is the big reason for the ratings dip, as we wrote in Friday’s Traina Thoughts, the event has become a boring television product and needs some changes.
They can start with giving us more Kyle Brandt.
4. If you missed late Friday night, Jeff Van Gundy gave us a classic Jeff Van Gundy moment.
5. I have a confession to make. I saw this video all over Twitter yesterday and I don’t know who Jack Harlow is, either. Is that really bad?
6. A brand-new SI Media Podcast dropped this morning, and it features a conversation with Ryen Russillo of The Ringer.
The host of the very popular Ryen Russillo Podcast shared his thoughts on everything from the NBA playoffs to Kevin Durant vs. TNT to the power of Inside the NBA to which sports have the worst officials to his favorite NBA announcers to how much trouble Major League Baseball is in, to the state of podcasting to Elon Musk’s buying Twitter.
The podcast closes with our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment featuring Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York. This week, Jimmy and Sal discuss the NFL’s reportedly scheduling three games Christmas Day this season and a game Black Friday beginning in 2023, as well as HBO’s Winning Time series and more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
