John Collins and Joel Embiid have some history against each other. For years, Embiid's antics have bothered Collins, as the Philadelphia 76ers routinely trashed the Atlanta Hawks. But last post-season, the Hawks pulled an Uno reverse card on the Sixers and eliminated them from the playoffs in the second-round.
Collins made sure to savor his sweet victory over the Sixers, wearing a shirt that had an image of him postering Embiid in the post-game presser. A few months after that insane upset, the Hawks center talked about his beef with Embiid with The Athletic, and how that motivated the team in the playoffs.
“It’s definitely funny… I know Joel says a lot. I know a lot of people were asking why I did what I did to him and why I made the shirt. As a man, I don’t feel like I need to get into it, but I feel like there’s a lot of stuff there for why we played so hard and why it was a tough series. We wanted to prove a point for a number of reasons. There were a bunch of different things that added fuel to our fire in that series [vs. Sixers].”
Simmons and Embiid certainly did a lot of taunting and disrespecting against the Hawks in the regular season. In that same article, we are reminded of an interaction between Simmons and Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns. There, the Sixers PG insinuated that Towns didn't need to prepare for his next game because they were up against Collins and the Hawks.
Collins' beef with Embiid, though, was a little more personal. The Sixers All-Star got his then-career high over the Hawks in 2020, all while jawing at Collins, his primary defender. He'd go on to taunt them on and on throughout the game. It's no wonder, then, that when Collins finally was able to expose the Sixers in the playoffs, he made sure to let Embiid and the world know.
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