Joel Embiid‘s on-court success can sometimes be overshadowed by his massive personality on social media. While Embiid is maybe the most talented young big man in the league, he’s become known for his willingness to crack jokes on social media whenever the opportunity presents itself, whether he’s just being silly or in the midst of a beef with Hassan Whiteside.
You can kind of point to the series of events that led to Embiid developing this reputation: His tweets in which he tried flirting with Rihanna before he ever took the floor in the NBA. Well, it wasn’t flirting with Rihanna as much as Embiid revealed to the world that he had a massive crush on the Grammy Award winner via Twitter.
But as it turns out, Embiid now thinks he probably shouldn’t have done that. The Sixers star sat down with Clay Skipper of GQ for an interview, and at one point, he discussed his “relationship” with Rihanna. While he mentioned he’s met her and that she enjoyed his tweets, he would advise a younger version of himself to avoid tweeting at her for a pretty solid reason.
If you could go back and give advice to your sixteen-year-old self, when you first started playing ball, what would you say?
I would say, “Don’t ever talk to Rihanna.”
…
So it worked.It worked, but you know, I got a lot more to worry about. Basketball is more important. But yeah, I would say, “Don’t talk to Rihanna. Don’t tweet at her.”
Embiid’s general approach, apparently, is that basketball is more important than anything else, so he should focus on that. Seeing as how he’s trying to get to a point where he’s not on a minutes restriction and he’s allowed to play in back-to-backs, this is reassuring, even if it costs him a friendship with Rihanna.
(Via GQ)
