PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Brand-new 76ers backup center Andre Drummond insists that he and Joel Embiid are cool, despite appearing to have been bitter rivals over the years.
"I think for me there was never any real beef," Drummond said in his introductory press conference. "At the end of the day, it's the game of basketball. It's a heated game where we're both competitors. The way we play is sometime we talk. I don't think it ever goes any further than that. I don't think there's any real beef or any kind of malice towards each other."
Drummond and Embiid have a history from their showdowns in the past. Embiid implied in a tweet after a game in 2018 that he owns a lot of real estate in Drummond's head.
The Sixers Twitter account had some fun with this story angle this week, tweeting "let's share some real estate," in a couple of posts that showed the two centers greeting each other.
"We're on the same team now," Drummond said, "so that's nothing that I'm thinking about or anything that's really gonna bother me."
Drummond insisted that there's nothing to hash out with Embiid, and teaming up with him will make things difficult for their opponents. Drummond was most recently on the Los Angeles Lakers and explained that once it didn't make sense to return to them based on moves they made, that the Sixers were the next best option. He called it a no-brainer. A source confirmed that Drummond is in Philadelphia on a one-year deal for the veteran's minimum.
Connecticut native Drummond, 28 years old next Tuesday, is a two-time NBA All-Star from 2016 and 2018 and has started most of his NBA career — something he won't do here unless filling in for Embiid. Drummond explained that he is accepting that, looking to do what is best for the Sixers.
"Making the decision to come to Philly is just based off of just Doc really having the faith in me to really help this team do something special."