Montrezl Harrell is not backing down. Not from Joel Embiid during the game, not after.
It all started with just more than three minutes left in the third quarter. Embiid drew a foul on the drive, both men wrapped each other up, there was pushing, words and a double technical. It was a flash of emotion in an otherwise blowout Sixers win.
Harrell doesn’t always let things go, and one possession later Embiid drew a foul again and baited Harrell into a shove after the play, which meant a second technical for Harrell and he was headed to the showers.
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Joel Embiid on his back and forth with Montrezl Harrell: “I wouldn’t say I baited him into that (second tech) but I like to think that I’m a troll. I like to think I kind of made him get out of his comfort zone, and that got him kicked out…
— Gina Mizell (@ginamizell) December 27, 2021
After the game, Harrell had words for Embiid, via Andrew Gillis at NBC Sports Washington.
“I don’t regret not one minute,” Harrell said of getting ejected. “At the end of the day, the double tech was called how it was supposed to be called. But if we’re going to nitpick about every little rule, taunting and all that, then let it go both ways. He got an and-one, he want to yell in my face and stuff like that, I pushed him out my face. That was the end of it…
“He was the one to step back and point, ‘Oh, oh, I got pushed!’ Stand on your toughness,” Harrell said. “If you’re so tough, stand on that, my dude. Don’t start nitpicking and pointing and wanting to do the telling when the ref walk in, my guy. Stand on that. I am, I got tossed, it is what it is. I wish it wouldn’t have been in the situation that it was in, but I don’t regret it.”
Embiid likes to be an irritant, to get under guys’ skin, and then walk away from it. He did just that to Harrell and got him ejected, which was the goal.
Harrell isn’t the kind to regret his actions, however, and he will remember the next time they play.
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Harrell to Embiid: “If you’re so tough, stand on that, my dude.” originally appeared on NBCSports.com