Ty Lue is not happy with Sixers' president of basketball operations Daryl Morey for taking a shot at the Clippers' free-throw shooting on Twitter.
However, it wasn't Lue who started the feud, it was Lue, who took a shot at the Sixers' two-star players, Joel Embiid and James Harden.
When he spoke with the media ahead of Friday's game against Philly, Lue claimed that if you took away both players' ability to get to the line, (Harden averages 9.8 attempts a game, Embiid 11.8) they wouldn't be in the top 10 in the league for scoring.
"Well we don’t have a choice," Lue responded. "Embiid is No. 1 from the free-thrw line and James is No. 3. I think they said if you take away their free throws neither one of those guys would be in the top 10 in scoring, so it just tells you how much they’re getting to the free-throw line.
"We've just got to do a good job pulling our hands back, making sure we’re playing, not letting them get into the bonus and do the sweep-throughs. They’re going to get some calls because of who they are, but we just got to make sure we’re doing our part."
Morey caught wind of Lue's remarks and went to Twitter to defend Harden and Embiid, pointing out that the Clippers' offense would rank dead last if they never got to the charity stripe. Morrey then indicated that Harden and Embiid's ability to earn so many free-throw attempts was proof that the opposing team is unable to stop either of them.
That's when Lue took things a step further, reminding everyone of Morey's biggest gaffs as an NBA executive. Lue in response said Morrey had "cost the league $1 billion," after tweeting about Hong Kong's effort to remain independent. He added that instead of Morey worrying about the Clippers, he should focus on his own team.
"In response to Daryl Morey, should he really be tweeting anything right now?" Lue said. "Last time he tweeted, he cost the NBA a billion dollars. I don’t think he should be doing too much tweeting. Just worry about his own team."
In case you forgot, back in 2019, Morey tweeted in support of the protestors in Hong Kong and immediately faced a ton of backlash.
"Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong," Morey said on Twitter during his tenure with the Houston Rockets.
Many across the NBA scolded the 49-year-old league exec, including LeBron James and Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, in large part to the league being in bed with China where the NBA is popular and financially tied with many of its companies. Morey's tweet eventually led to the removal of games on China's state-run TV broadcasts.
Lue may be over-exaggerating the financial loss the league took from Morrey's tweet just a tad bit, but league commissioner Adam Silver did imply back in 2020 that the NBA did lose millions of dollars due to Morey's actions.
Now, Morey and the world are reminded of his blunder, which was brought back up during a feud over free-throw shooting.
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