How waving started a petty war between Joel Embiid and Russell Westbrook

Russell Westbrook and Joel Embiid having extremely trivial beef is the dream we’ve long kept in the back in of our brains, never believing we truly deserved it. But on Friday night, the stars aligned (pun!), and finally our collective good karma birthed the most perfect triple overtime early Christmas present that was the Thunder vs. Sixers game.

OKC went on to win, 119-117, but the score of this one won’t be remembered months from now. The sarcastic waving, the postgame trash-talk, and the beginning of new beef between two of the NBA’s biggest cultural heroes will.

Though I’d bet my life that there was other trash-talking we don’t know about, Embiid waving Steven Adams off the court in the third overtime after he fouled out is where this beef truly began.

This DID NOT sit well with Westbrook. Like at all. This meant war.

So when the buzzer sounded, and the Thunder finished on top, he returned the favor right back at Embiid.

A theme of disrespect ran through the sentiments of each of the star’s postgame conversations with the media, as the wave-offs and “Go home” screams were taken personally by both. Westbrook defended Adams’ honor afterwards, admitting he told Embiid to go home (even though they were in Philly).

“I was telling him to ‘Go home.’” Westbrook said. “He was talkin’ mess to Steve-O. Fouled out, waving to the crowd which was unnecessary. Waving to Steve-O bye. Now it’s time for him to go home.”

“He told me to go home,” Embiid said. I mean this is my home, so I guess it’s time for him to go home. They won the game, I give them a lot of credit, he did a lot of things, but the dude shot like 10-for-33. I wish I would have shot 33 times. I guess we would have had a better chance of actually winning the game. But you know, he told me to go home and this is my home and I ain’t going nowhere.”

Embiid scored 37 points on just 20 attempts, while Russ had 27 on 33.

My goodness, he actually called Russ out on it.

These two play again on Jan. 28, and it’s sure to be brilliant.

Embiid and Carmelo Anthony got into a scuffle earlier in the game, because of course.

Embiid also addressed that after the game.

I guess he doesn’t remember the NBA’s last brawl in 2006, which happened to feature Anthony as the guy who actually fought. If you look back at the video of Embiid and Anthony talking trash, you can see Melo say “I’m not the one. Don’t do that.”