It was not exactly a warm reception for Joel Embiid at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.
Embiid, the 76ers star who’s been at the center of plenty of controversy in the first-round series against the Knicks, was booed before Game 5 and seemingly every time he touched the ball in the first half of the game.
As he was introduced as part of the starting lineups, the raucous crowd at The Garden rained boos down on the big man, making it hard to hear his name over the public address system.
That came after TNT’s Jared Greenberg held up a copy the Tuesday back page of The Post, which dubbed Embiid as “The Most Hated Man in NY.”
Fans in and around MSG were also heard chanting “F–k Embiid” as they had after Game 4’s win at Wells Fargo Center.
Rapper Fat Joe, attending the game, posted a video on social media saying that “My fist stinks a little because Joel Embiid just walked by and gave me a dap.”
The Garden crowd did erupt in jubilation in the second quarter, though, when the Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson dunked over Embiid.
Robinson was knocked out of Game 4 after Embiid had grabbed the Knicks big man by the lower leg during Game 3, which was called a flagrant foul — but was not enough to get Embiid ejected from the game.
Embiid had 13 points with 6:31 left in the third quarter.
