PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid did not start playing basketball until he was 15 years old. He started loving the game due to the late great Kobe Bryant.
Bryant, a winner of five championships and countless amazing moments while playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, is one of the icons in the history of the sport. Embiid has stated time and time again that Bryant influenced him into wanting to play basketball.
After Embiid delivered a masterful performance of 30 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in a 138-94 win over the Lakers on Monday, the big fella was asked about his career success against Los Angeles. The Sixers have won seven in a row over LA, and Embiid entered the night with career averages of 31.6 points, 9.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists against the Lakers.
“I don’t know,” Embiid said when asked why he’s so successful against the Lakers. “Obviously, I started playing late and I started watching late because of Kobe. That’s my favorite team so any time I played against them, I want to get the win, but I do it every night anyways against every other team.”
Embiid isn’t wrong in that he does do a lot of damage to almost every team in the league. He has led the league in scoring two seasons in a row, after all, and is the reigning MVP. However, he did look like a different player on Monday. There was a different focus. A different look in his eye from the jump.
“Maybe it’s just a coincidence that that’s one of the teams where, obviously, I seem to dominate and score a lot, but I think it happens against anybody,” Embiid added. “Every single night, I just want to go out there and dominate offensively and defensively.”
It’s understandable why the Lakers would be Embiid’s favorite team. Bryant is so important to the history of the game not only for who he was as a player, but as a person as well. He was the epitome of greatness and an example of what happens when a player puts the work in on an everyday basis.
With that being said, a triple-double is a triple-double and Embiid was on another level in this one. He knows it and he made it look really easy against a pretty good Lakers team defensively.
“Just seeing what the defense was giving me,” Embiid added. “I mean, in the post, they just double on every single possession, so I just made the right play and the two-man game between Tyrese and myself and a couple of me bringing the ball up in transition with them loading up just taking whatever is available.”
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