Joel Embiid had the appropriate reaction to a rat interrupting his press conference
As Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid answered questions following his 33-point, 19-rebound effort in a two-point win over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night, what sounded an awful lot like a rat in the ceiling of the Wells Fargo Center’s conference room interrupted his train of thought.
The Philly Voice’s Kyle Neubeck, whose own investigation into said supposed rat was Woodward and Bernstein-esque, alerted his followers on Twitter that Embiid’s reaction was more stuff of legend:
Joel Embiid’s postgame availability was just interrupted by what sounded like a rat in the ceiling in the press room. I wish I had been filming because his face was absolutely priceless, and he had to re-hear the question he was being asked to get a grip on it
— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) January 24, 2019
And it was:
During Joel Embiid’s press conference something started moving inside the ceiling above. Good chance it spooked just about everyone in the room…and Joel’s reaction is priceless #Sixers pic.twitter.com/aHD0EMtEpq
— Dave Uram (@MrUram) January 24, 2019
This, my friends, is the appropriate response to a rat scattering above your head:
That presumably was intrepid Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Sarah Todd who warned Embiid, “Roof Rat.” Theories on the rat’s identity ranged from Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty to former Sixers general manager Jerry Colangelo. Thankfully, the rat never crashed through the roof to reveal himself.
Gritty lives in the basement of the Wells Fargo Center. He eats rats bigger than that for breakfast. https://t.co/dTvYohB5IW
— Matt Mullin (@matt_mullin) December 20, 2018
It is unclear if the Wells Fargo Center is a sanctuary for rats, but Wells Fargo & Co. was awarded a Compassionate Company Award by PETA in 2012 for banning all glue traps in the workplace. A May 2016 inspection of Philadelphia’s arena did turn up mouse droppings in a concession storage area and yielded a 31.37 percent high-level violation rate, according to ESPN’s Outside The Lines.
The Spectrum, where the Sixers played across the parking lot from their new building until the mid-1990s, was so famous for rats that Charles Barkley asked a Wells Fargo Center employee a few years back, “Y’all still got them rats in here? Them rats as big as cats?” We were left to ponder the answer.
Black Sabbath has also performed a pretty great rendition of “Rat Salad” at the arena. For the sake of the fine media members covering the Sixers who now must wonder if at any given moment a rat could fall on their heads mid-question, we sure do hope that is not on the menu for the next pregame meal.
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Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
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