Stop us if you have heard this one before, but Joel Embiid dissed an opposing team this week.
The Boston Celtics lost to the Philadelphia 76ers 111-99 on Friday and, in doing so, made their way straight to Embiid’s list of victims.
After the game, the Sixers center Embiid was asked what sparked his team’s improved defensive performance against the Celtics after they lost by double digits to the Charlotte Hornets the game before.
“Charlotte, they move the ball extremely well and they have shooters all over the place, and they made a bunch of jump shots,” replied Embiid, per Sixers writer Derek Bodner. “Boston is more of an iso heavy team, so it becomes easier to load up and try to stop them.”
Embiid is not wrong. Boston has been extensively criticized this year, even by some of the all-time greats of their franchise, for a lack of ball movement under the leadership of star duo Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
It is rare though for players to so directly criticize an opponent. Most players will use “mediaspeak” and limit their comments to crediting their own team (e.g. “I think we did a better job of communicating tonight and were a step quicker to make rotations thanks to the hard work we put in at practice”).
But Embiid is not most players. If there is any doubt on how he feels about the Celtics, keep in mind that he already trolled them last month.
More must-reads: