On Monday evening Joel Embiid lived up to his unofficial billing as the best troll in the NBA by posting a pic of him shushing the Philadelphia crowd with that Harvey Dent quote that says "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." The image was taken on Sunday during the fourth quarter of the 76ers' 118-111 win over the Bulls. The location was also reported as being "All love."
The whole thing is probably just a reference to getting booed during that game on Sunday...
...but speculating over sports helps the industry thrive, so have at it.
What the hell does any of that even mean, you say? Well conspiracy theorists have got your back. You see, the top rated comment below comes from Jimmy Butler saying he "knows a place where villains are welcome." Unless that statement has absolutely nothing to do with basketball, and Butler is involved with some real-life Legion of Doom, this is presumably a reference to Miami.
Okay, fine. Whether or not that constitutes tampering isn't your problem (probably not but, again, not your problem). Still, the conspiracy got weirder when some eagle-eyed fans pointed out that Butler made the same quote in this October 2018 Instagram post just a few weeks before he got traded from Minnesota to Philadelphia:
Note that the 2019-20 trade deadline has passed, and Embiid is still locked up by Philly for the next several seasons. That should surely be enough for paranoid Sixers fans who got through dark years by "trusting the process," and also what we assume is a very level-headed talk radio industry in that region.
For what it's worth, Embiid also tweeted the exact same quote and then followed it up with a more Philly-positive tweet that said "PHILA TOUGH!!!" in all caps. If that doesn't appeal to the blue collar diehards then what will?:
Anyway you can try and figure it all out, go down a rabbit hole trying to decipher something that means nothing (ding ding), or just say "Okay, whatever" and move on.
That's trolling for ya. Choice is yours.
