MERRY CHRISTMAS TO JOEL EMBIID, WHO MENACED AND SCREAMED AT A FEMALE REF

The NBA might seriously suspend a brute who rests for too many games, shoved a sports columnist and made “incidental contact” with official Jenna Schroeder, who was lucky to get away Monday night

Only hours from Christmas, Joel Embiid was screaming in the face of referee Jenna Schroeder, who’d just ejected him from a game and was avoiding his angry spittle. One is a man. One is a woman. And if the NBA office discovers on videotape that he soaked her with saliva, Embiid should be suspended for the long term and sent to therapy.

Welcome to gender equality in big-time sports. Schroeder is among seven full-time female officials and had to walk away with both hands in the air. Embiid appears to be the new Draymond Green, another creep who can’t control himself weeks after he shoved a Philadelphia sports columnist in the 76ers locker room. Commissioner Adam Silver has been too easy on Green, who intentionally held the leg of Memphis rookie Zach Edey and should have been suspended for a plethora of past misdeeds. Now he has Embiid, who struck a media member and was close to a similar act with Schroeder.

“Incidental contact with both of them,” said crew chief Curtis Blair, who oddly added, “There was nothing that warranted any further punishment.”

Embiid is 7 feet tall and weighs almost 300 pounds.

Schroeder is 5 feet 6 with a blond bun.

At this point in an awful season, when Embiid’s moods are blamed for his team’s 10-17 record, he should know better than to take on any official. Chasing Schroeder makes him look evil at the holidays. He was called for a charge against Victor Wembanyama, whose 7-4 body fell when Embiid thumped him with a right shoulder. Once the call was made, he raced downcourt and approached her, his arms extended, pointing wildly at his chest. She called him for a technical foul, forcing him into a scream-a-thon as teammate Kyle Lowry and several coaches restrained him. Embiid was tossed and told to leave but not until he waved his fists and approached another official. He removed his mask.

His tantrum wasn’t stopping. The police and security guards were watching closely. What if he turned maniacal again, in the same home arena where he confronted the Inquirer’s Marcus Hayes?

“I couldn't ever really get to the referee that called it,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said. “So, I was asking the other guys and they were saying to ask her, and I never really got a chance. I just assume it was (for) arguing or whatever.”

The rage started when Schroeder ejected Andre Drummond for a foul on Wembanyama before rescinding it. The 76ers were in no mood for offbeat officiating, but Embiid pushed the madness. Once, Schroeder told The Athletic that players were pleased to meet her when she was appointed in 2019. But then she grasped their nasty edges, saying, “People get emotional because these are their livelihoods. We as officials can’t take it personal, and we don’t take it personal. There’s always something else behind it. Not everyone has great days all the time, and I think that’s a big part behind it.”

Her way of escaping it was fleeing quickly. Were the officials protecting Wembanyama, who is playing a big role in the league’s Christmas Day programming? A grump doesn’t want to hear it, not happy after Embiid helped Team USA to win a gold medal in Paris. I’ve suggested he retire from the sport because he thinks load management is a regular part of his career. Now he can ask if his outcry is horrible for the sport. Why make $193 million for the next three years if he can’t stand the NBA? He was returning from a sinus fracture.

What next?

He was the MVP in 2023. After he departed, the Sixers came back against the San Antonio Spurs and won 111-106. “When (Embiid) got ejected, they’re a different team. They played really good basketball,” said Wembanyama, who blocked seven shots in the first two quarters. “There’s that awareness, but also, their lineup changed.”

The only good news: Embiid wasn’t available for interviews afterward.

Imagine if he was.

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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.