The dirty little secret behind most NBA fights is that they aren’t usually all that good. They’re oftentimes some pushing and shoving and jawing that quickly get broken up by teammates, coaches, and officials. This, in part, is why Wednesday night’s tussle between Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns was so captivating. The two giants tried grappling with one another after some shoving, then went spilling to the ground and eventually got ejected, which led to Embiid hamming it up for the hometown fans.
Naturally, the reaction to “Joel Embiid got tossed for fighting” went right to “oh god he’s going to post something about this, isn’t he?” This presumption was correct. Embiid took to Instagram after the game, taking pride in the “SERIOUS REAL ESTATE” he believes he has taken up in Towns’ head.
The reference to Jimmy Butler, of course, stems from the infamous practice in which the then-Timberwolves wing teamed up with third stringers to play against Towns and the rest of the starters. It, per reports, included Butler challenging Towns, which left the talented big man shook. As for the reference to Towns’ mother, well, a video that hit the Twitterverse showed her flipping Embiid off as he walked into the tunnel after getting tossed.
Karl's parents reprimanding jojo as he exits the tunnel. #Tellemmama pic.twitter.com/x5VHcQyMRT
— Cole Aldrich (@colea45) October 31, 2019
He would post an amended version for Twitter, that included some visual evidence of Towns’ mom upset with him exiting the floor.
Great team win!!! I was raised around lions and a cat pulled on me tonight lmao.. Got his mama giving middle fingers left and right. That’s some SERIOUS REAL ESTATE #FightNight #IAintNoBitch pic.twitter.com/MWc9p0jy7u
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) October 31, 2019
Embiid and Towns have had some battles over the years, and it can really come off like the two are not huge fans of one another. We won’t speculate on whether that’s true or not, but it is fair to say that Embiid got a whole lot of joy out of everything that happened on Wednesday night.