Nick Piccone
The Sixers defeated the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night, 108-103.
A storyline going into the game was the fact that Joel Embiid said earlier in the day that Andre Drummond, Detroit’s big center to oppose Embiid, couldn’t shoot. Drummond responded by basically saying Embiid is disqualified from talking smack because he can’t play in back-to-backs. It all set up nicely for an interesting matchup at the Wells Fargo Center.
Embiid finished the game with 25 points and 10 rebounds, and also got Drummond to foul out of the game.
Life comes at you fast pic.twitter.com/UObaol0dl6
— Nick Piccone (@nickpiccone) December 3, 2017
The two didn’t really get into much on the court during the course of the game, but Embiid wasn’t shy about revealing his strategy to get into opposing players’ heads and using that to his advantage during an interview with NBA TV after the game.
First, they asked him who the best big man in the NBA is… because they knew exactly what he was going to say.
“I mean, you’re looking at him right here. I do it both defensively, offensively, you know, some people might have some other opinions about it. But I know that I am and I know that people are seeing that now because I do it on both ends. I still got a long way to go. I got a lot to learn and I can’t wait until I keep on learning and get better.”
Then, they asked him about the whole beef with Drummond. Embiid revealed why he likes to talk trash on social media and in interviews.
“I don’t even know why I’m going to say this but I’m gonna give out my secret. One of the main things about me is just talking trash to all those guys is, just, when I go on social media, I know they’re gonna be mad and the next time they’re going to be excited to play against me and I know they’re going to be extra aggressive. And I know that if you’re being extra aggressive, you can call me the the James Harden of the bigs. I know I can draw fouls.”
Here’s the video:
“You looking at him right here.”@JoelEmbiid gives his opinion on who the best big man in the league is. #GameTime pic.twitter.com/9uQ1zEM0mt
— NBA TV (@NBATV) December 3, 2017
An absolute treasure.
You can follow Nick Piccone on Twitter (@nickpiccone) and e-mail him at [email protected]. Subscribe to his podcast on iTunes here or listen on WildfireRadio.com. Click here to read his pro wrestling articles on PhillyVoice. Follow Philly Influencer on Twitter (@PHL_Influencer), Facebook and Instagram.