Every time Joel Embiid takes the basketball court -- or pulls his phone out of his pocket -- he has the ability to surprise us with a new move.
Jojo went toe-to-toe with the NBA's best Golden State Warriors on Saturday night, particularly chatting it up with Draymond Green, and held his own in a tough loss in front of a packed house of Philadelphia Sixers fans.
Embiid is clearly in opposing teams' heads at this early stage of his career. Prior to the game Saturday, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said what Joel did in L.A. last week was "terrifying." Then, following the Golden State win, Kevin Durant said they didn't want to lose to the Sixers because then they'd have to hear about it from Embiid on Twitter afterwards.
"We wanted to win this game really, really bad. After being down by so much. And we didn't want to lose to these guys, especially [Embiid]," Durant said.
"He woulda gone straight to twitter and start talkin' shit."
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Welp. The Sixers lost and Embiid found a way to roast the Warriors anyway. That's a new one!
Now we know what it feels like to blow a big lead.. Gotta stay focused to get the job done. Great learning lesson and I also love playing against Draymond #TheProcess pic.twitter.com/hGGQN1SH73— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) November 19, 2017
The man is creative. A classic throwback burn to the legendary 3-1 collapse to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Lovely.
There's something about the way Embiid talks trash that other teams appreciate. Following the game on Saturday night, Draymond said he respects Embiid's trash talk game because he doesn't just talk when the Sixers are winning, he talks smack the entire game no matter what.
That's dedication to his craft.
Draymond said after the game that he respects Embiid's trash talk cause he doesn't just talk when he's winning, he talks the whole game.— Enrico (@The700Level) November 19, 2017