‘Joel Embiid makes you want to choke him, he flops too much’: When former Lakers center Dwight Howard slammed Sixers star

Dwight Howard has changed his stance about Joel Embiid after inking a deal with the Philadelphia 76ers this season.

The NBA season is less than a month away. We saw a lot of moves this offseason; trades, free-agency deals, and whatnot. Few of them were expected, the others took us by surprise. Now that the rosters are almost set, players are headed to their cities to ink their deals and start practicing with their respective teams.

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Lakers’ Dwight Howard was signed by the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency. He made his way there earlier this week, on Monday. On Wednesday Howard made his first media appearance as a Sixer. There he seemed happy to join the Sixers and made quite the news with his statements. He initially called Ben Simmons a ‘young LeBron James’ and then also spoke about Joel Embiid.

Dwight Howard’s wildly different statements about Joel Embiid

Back when Dwight was in his second stint with the Lakers, he made a very public statement about Joel Embiid. He said that Embiid’s flopping made him want to choke him. Embiid has also been berated by others around the league for these antics.

The Lakers star saw Embiid as direct competition while in LA and hence made a statement to rile up his rival. However, now since he himself has moved to Philadelphia, he has been forced to change his stance on Sixers’ go-to big man.

Dwight Howard: “Joel Embiid makes you want to choke him because he flops so much.”

— 👑📍Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson, M.A. (@ScoopB) July 18, 2020

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In his press conference, Dwight said he believes the Sixers can win, because he sees the ‘fire in Joel Embiid’.

The change in Howard’s stance may have been due to his new appointment to the Sixers. He would want to not start with bad blood between himself and the Sixers star.

It might as well just be the difference in the stances due to different points of view. As an opponent, Dwight could not stand Joel Embiid. Now, as teammates, however,Dwight and Joel share a different kind chemistry, something Dwight Howard enjoys.

It would be interesting to see how the Sixers fare throughout the season, and if they could win as big as Howard predicts.