Kevin Durant’s Brooklyn Nets and Joel Embiid’s Philadelphia 76ers faced off against each other in a recent fixture in the NBA. While the Nets are undoubtedly the best team in the Eastern Conference as of now, they couldn’t register a win against the 76ers.
In a 110-102 victory, Embiid was simply sensational and continued his dominance this season. He finished the game with 34 points in 32 minutes. His contributions were more than enough for the 76ers to win their 19th game of the season and improve their record to 19-16.
While Embiid’s performance was great, he made headlines for a different reason. During the game, Embiid and KD got into a heated exchange that led to technical fouls being handed to both players.
At the time, it looked like this fight would leave bitterness between the two, but fortunately, that was not the case. Durant cleared the air about the altercation earlier and later Joel also spoke about the matter in the postgame conference. Embiid revealed:
“That’s the best team in the conference. Obviously, I respect them a lot. Judging by the way he was acting last time, that’s the same thing he told us. Basically, we returned the favor, but there’s a lot of respect. I always tell people, I think I can do everything on the basketball court. There’s not a lot of guys that are able to do it and if there was one player that I think is more talented than me, it’s definitely him [Kevin Durant]. I have a lot of respect for him and admire his game.
"If there was one player that I think is more talented than me, it's definitely [Kevin Durant]. I have a lot of respect for him" – Joel Embiid on Kevin Durant pic.twitter.com/XVevVtVzTR
— Nets Videos (@SNYNets) December 31, 2021
Durant is one of the best players of this generation and he has proved it time after time throughout his career. Even the best of the best tend to lose their cool sometimes and his altercation with Embiid was probably such a case, nothing more and nothing less.
Moving forward, the two superstars will undoubtedly try to put it behind them and focus on helping their teams win games in the quest of the winning the 2021-22 NBA Championship.
On that note, Durant and co. are eagerly awaiting Kyrie Irving’s return to the roster. Once Kai returns to the team, it will be interesting to see how he adjusts to being a part-time player in the league.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkqVEEdE7tg
