Watch: What Joel Embiid Said to Celtics’ Grant Williams After Stepping on His Head
The NBA MVP explained that stepping on the forward’s head was a total accident and not intentional.
Grant Williams expected the Celtics to be in a highly contested battle in Game 3 of the best-of-seven semifinal series against the 76ers on Friday night.
However, the Boston forward did not expect his head to be smashed into the floor while going after a loose ball. During the fourth quarter of Friday’s game, Williams and his teammate, Jaylen Brown, crashed into each other on the court while scrambling for a loose ball inside Wells Fargo Arena. Seconds after the Brown-Williams collision, Joel Embiid—who was airborne—attempted to land his feet on the ground after also going after the ball.
Instead, this year’s MVP connected with Williams’s head, driving it into the court and leaving Williams in pain with a bloody mouth and extensive time on the sideline as Boston trainers attended to him.
When Williams returned to the game, Embiid apologized to Williams in an exchange caught on live mics. Take a look.
“My bad,” Embiid said. “I tried to jump over … but ended up in the air.”
“It’s the playoffs brother,” Williams responded. “I know you was going for the ball. … This is what we battle for.”
Embiid goes to Williams to explain, Williams says it's all good pic.twitter.com/Lbz9XHVX7o
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) May 6, 2023
After the Celtics’ 114–102 victory against the 76ers to take a 2–1 lead in the series, Williams made light of Embiid’s accident in the postgame news conference.
“I was like, ‘Dang, I really got curb-stomped.’ It happens, man,” Williams said. “He was falling backwards and I’m just thankful he didn’t fully lean his weight on it because he definitely got me pretty badly, but then I think he felt that he landed on something, so he picked his foot up. Hurts a little bit.”
While Brown, Jayson Tatum and Al Horford were the main catalysts behind the Celtics’ win, Williams was an unsung hero for surviving that collision and for guarding Embiid as his assignment throughout the game.