Marcus Hayes spoke about the Joel Embiid situation on today's 94WIP Midday Show with Hugh Douglas and Joe Giglio.
Douglas asked Hayes why he felt the need to include both Embiid's son and his "little brother, who tragically died in an automobile accident" in his original story for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
"I really didn't," Hayes explained. "I just wrote it and then, like yourself, when I wrote it and read it and then submitted it, it didn't seem egregious. Then maybe two hours later, as I always do, I go back—I don't know if it is going to post right away. Our editorial process is kind of fluid, so I wrote that early in the day and it posted early in the day. It happened to be up, but sometimes it won't post until five [o'clock] the next morning. The way we edit, if I make a mistake they'll highlight the mistake and leave it in there so I know I made it. And I also read it for content, I read it from beginning to the end and I read the comments on the internet.
"Some of the comments were like, 'Hey, what you wrote about his kid and his brother doesn't seem quite right.' So I read it through those eyes and I was like, 'You know what, I can understand that.'
"I took it out and it read better, it was better written without it. When I reposted it, I alerted people because I don't think it's really responsible to change your story without addressing that you changed your story."
Embiid later called Hayes during his first postgame press conference since the story, which Hayes was not in attendance for. Days later, Embiid and Hayes got into a locker room altercation where Embiid shoved Hayes and was later suspended three games by the NBA.
Embiid, 30, will make his season debut tonight for the Sixers against the Knicks at the Wells Fargo Center after facing his three-game suspension.
Philadelphia is just 2-7 with Embiid missing the first nine games of the season as his knee was not one hundred percent ready to go.