This offseason was as crazy as we’ve seen in years in terms of star players moving, but it also was a great summer for pettiness. That craziness has spilled over into the first week of the season, and unsurprisingly one of the players at the center of it all is Joel Embiid.
The Sixers’ young star is widely regarded as one of the NBA’s most entertaining follows on social media, and this season he’s shown he’s not afraid to mix it up and get into some Twitter beef with his opponents in the Eastern Conference. During the preseason, Embiid got into it with Hassan Whiteside in a vicious back-and-forth after the Heat’s center got into early foul trouble trying to slow down Embiid.
The latest target of Embiid’s trash talk is Pistons center Andre Drummond, who struggled with the Sixers’ big man on Monday night as Embiid lit up the Pistons with 30 points and nine rebounds in 28 minutes of play as Philly notched its first win of the season. After the game, Embiid trashed Drummond’s effort in stopping him, saying he doesn’t play any defense (via the Philly Inquirer).
“Defensively, he doesn’t play any defense,” Embiid said. “When we started the game, he was being aggressive and he was talking, too. … So what I was like [in my mind], ‘You want to do that? I’m going to kick your [butt] then.’ So that’s what I did.”
That comment started making headlines and, eventually, made it’s way back to Drummond who took to Twitter to simply note that he’ll be ready for him when they meet again in December.
See you Dec 2nd😏
— Andre Drummond (@AndreDrummond) October 24, 2017
For all the complaints about the modern NBA being too soft and players being too friendly we hear from players from the 90s, Embiid is at least trying to bring some nastiness back to the center position. He’s often doing it in a very modern way through social media, but the intent is the same as the old greats: getting someone off their game by talking trash.
The Sixers and Pistons game on December 2 was never going to be a must watch game, but now I’m starting to think that might require a little bit of my attention to see how Drummond responds. If he shows up and dominates, I’m sure he’ll have something to say, but if Embiid has another huge performance you can bet he’s going to sound off again afterwards.
