Joel Embiid and Hassan Whiteside added a new chapter to their beef on Thursday night when they get tangled up running down the court in the third quarter.
That broke a kind of glasnost between the two, after earlier in the season Whiteside said he wasn’t interested in a beef with the Sixers All-Star. That beef apparently started when Embiid got on the Heat forward for worrying too much about his individual stats.
Thursday’s scuffle, though, brought back some clear frustrations between the two. Whiteside thought Embiid was trying to hit him, and Embiid thought Whiteside was doing the same. What actually happened is that, after the initial block, Whiteside’s hand hit Embiid, then Whiteside somehow hit himself in the face.
If we’re judging this thing by Embiid’s standards, Whiteside got the better of him on Thursday night. The Heat won, 108-99, and Hassan outscored Embiid 26-17 on the night and had a huge dunk in front of Embiid in the fourth quarter.
https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/971956212920127493
But Embiid, perhaps predictably, had the last laugh in the locker room during postgame.
According to the Miami Sun-Sentinel, Embiid called the play “kind of dirty,” noting his injury history and then delivering a barb about how Whiteside “hitts pretty soft.”
“He tried to hit me in the back, which is kind of dirty because of the fact that I’ve had back problems,” Embiid said in the 76ers’ locker room. “We’re going to see about that. I won’t forget about that.”
Not, Embiid said, that it necessarily left an indelible impression.
“He hits pretty soft,” he said, “so I didn’t feel anything. But just the action of him trying to like do that, I think it’s pretty messed up.”
Embiid genuinely seemed upset about the incident with Whiteside, trying to put aside their past social media fights and speak about what he felt was an inappropriate incident on the court.
“I think he’s pretty messed up,” Embiid said. “I don’t care what we have outside of basketball. But at the same time, you’ve got to respect the rules of basketball and play basketball and have fun doing it.
Whiteside, meanwhile, didn’t have much to say about his technical foul on Thursday night.
“I look toward to this,” Whiteside said according to the Sun-Sentinel. “I will just let you know that.”
It’s important to note that Embiid didn’t post his customary postgame social media photos, so maybe he’s waiting for that response. But if Whiteside still believes what he said earlier in the season, it’s a volley that won’t be coming anytime soon.
