Well, guys, it finally happened. On Thursday night, shortly after the Lakers upset the 76ers thanks to a last-second three-pointer from Brandon Ingram, Joel Embiid and LaVar Ballfinally crossed paths for the first time.
If you haven’t been keeping up, Embiid and the Ball family patriarch have been going back-and-forth for several months now. It all started back in June when Embiid told his Sixers teammate Ben Simmons to dunk on LaVar’s son Lonzo after LaVar went on ESPN and suggested the Lakers could make the playoffs this season. LaVar responded a short time later by going on a Philadelphia radio station and telling Simmons and Embiid to "get your asses off the goddamn Twitter and get in the gym." Embiid turned around and responded to that by saying, "Fuck LaVar," during an Instagram Live session. And most recently, Embiid trolled LaVar by tagging him in the location of an Instagram photo of Embiid soaring over Lonzo for a layup.
So it didn’t seem like it would be all love the first time Embiid and LaVar actually got to meet. But as it turns out, that’s exactly what it was. There was no trash-talking between the two. There were no angry words exchanged. There was, quite simply, no beef. Embiid put up a photo of him and LaVar talking on Instagram late Thursday night, and while he did tag him in the location of the IG photo again, he also wrote a nice caption about LaVar.
"Tough loss but met LaVar and he’s definitely fun and full of energy," Embiid wrote.
LaVar returned the kind words. He appeared to be genuinely happy to meet Embiid, and he also dished out some advice to him. It’s the same advice he seems to use when it comes to his own life.
"Don’t worry about nobody on the outside," LaVar told Embiid. "You just keep playing."
This wasn’t necessarily how we saw a meeting with Embiid and LaVar playing out. But it was kind of nice to see two of the biggest personalities in the NBA (it’s safe to say LaVar is officially part of the NBA community now, right?) getting along rather than beefing for once.
