Joel Embiid and Marcus Smart are passionate players. The Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics are hated rivals. Tuesday’s game at TD Garden in Boston represented the regular-season opener around the NBA.
You can pretty much do the math from there. The game was tied at 63 through 24 minutes. It took roughly 19 seconds into the third quarter before Embiid and Smart traded shots en route to a near-fight taking place on the court.
Let’s set the scene before showing the video. Marcus Smart got tangled up with Joel Embiid. The latter hooked Smart’s arm, leading to a foul on the Celtics’ guard. Smart then grabbed Embiid’s leg, leading to the star center falling to the ground. Celtics star Jaylen Brown attempted to defend his teammate before James Harden did his best to quiet things.
Check it out.
In the end, Smart picked up both the personal foul and a technical foul after officials on hand in Boston took roughly 56.4 minutes to review the play in question.
This obviously isn’t the first time the two rivals have locked horns throughout their careers.
Boston Celtics fans send Joel Embiid some friendly chants after altercation with Marcus Smart
All the while, typically calm and respectful Celtics fans told Embiid exactly what they thought of the NBA MVP candidate. It’s NSFW, so beware.
The NBA of petty is back, and we’re only one half into the first game of the season.
To make matters more interesting, both Embiid and Smart started to get into it again a few moments later before “calmer heads” prevailed.
Fun stuff.