That One Time Thad Young Broke Joel Embiid’s Ankles

That time the Toronto Raptors got revenge on Joel Embiid, who was extra annoying, in Game 4.

In the first round of the 2022 NBA playoffs, Joel Embiid was really annoying.

His team, the Philidelphia 76ers, was playing against my favourite team, the Toronto Raptors, and he kept on flopping.

Every single time he got tapped by a Raptor, he would exaggerate how much power was behind the pat and the referees blew the whistle in his favour every time.

There was this one play in Game 1 that was especially annoying.

It was a dead ball and a smaller player -I think it was Chris Boucher- pushed Embiid’s leg to the side so he can get up from the ground.

Embiid acted like he got shoved by a prime Shaquille O’Neal and started flailing his arms all over as he fumbled backwards.

But other than the flopping and the refs doing a bad job, what hurt my feelings was that he played really well.

In the first 3 games of the series, Embiid averaged 27.7 points on 51 percent shooting and 13 rebounds.

And to add salt to the metaphorical gash, the 76ers were winning and were on the verge of sweeping the Raptors.

This angered all Raptors fans -not just me. We were all on the verge of burning some 76ers jerseys while apologizing for adding more carbon into the atmosphere.

But then something spectacular happened in Game 4.

It was near the end of the first quarter and the Raptors had possession of the ball.

Thaddeus Young had the ball at the top of the key after running a pick-and-roll with Fred VanVleet.

Embiid was defending him. But there was space to move, so Young attacked the basket.

However, Embiid stuck with him.

So, he hit the brakes, dribbled the ball behind his back, did an old man step-back, made Embiid, the MVP runner-up, touch the Earth, and sank the mid-range jumper to tie up the game.

It was glorious!

The entire Scotiabank Arena screamed in excitement as the public enemy no. 1 got embarrassed on the hardwood.

I screamed in front of my TV as well.

And to make things sweeter, the Raptors won the game and prevented the sweeping. They went on to win Game 5 as well.

However, they couldn’t defy the odds of coming back from 3-0 and taking the series. They fell to the 76ers in Game 6.

You can watch Young’s ankle-breaking handiwork here:

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