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Mo Bamba made a Twitter account on Thursday. And his very first tweet was directed at Joel Embiid.
Consider this to be day one of what could be a decade-long Twitter war between two Eastern Conference big men.
Video surfaced on Thursday afternoon of a pick-up game in Los Angeles, during which Embiid backed down Bamba and threw down a two-handed dunk.
Not gonna lie, my first reaction when seeing this video was that, on the initial contact, Embiid lowered his shoulder and drove it pretty damn hard into Bamba and the rookie stood his ground pretty well for a guy who currently isn’t much thicker than a sheet of paper. Anyway, while heading back down court, Embiid turned towards Bamba and shouted “Welcome to the f****** league!”
A few short hours after the video went viral, Bamba sent out his first tweet. He retweeted the video of Embiid dunking on him and thanked him for his “Welcome to the NBA” moment.
Thank you @JoelEmbiid for such a warm welcome to the NBA .. Will see y’all Oct 1 @OrlandoMagic https://t.co/wFpmTCIkCv
— Mo Bamba (@TheRealMoBamba) June 29, 2018
Despite their exchange on the court, there seems to be a mutual respect between Bamba and Embiid, who worked out together in April. Bamba has also been working with trainer and skills coach Drew Hanlen, whose clients also include Embiid and Markelle Fultz.
Mo Bamba is at the Sixers game. He’s in town to work out with Joel Embiid between games. He’s also getting some film sessions in with Jo this week. Told me Embiid is “giving me the cheat codes.”
— Jawn Gonzalez (@_JohnGonz) April 14, 2018
Prior to the Draft, Bamba appeared on ESPN’s “The Jump” and was asked by Tracy McGrady which player he is most looking forward to playing against. Bamba said he recently spent a week with Embiid and is anxiously awaiting his match-up with Embiid.
“He’s a guy I really want to play against,” Bamba said. “I learned so much from him in just a couple days of just being around him. Hes a guy that I really aspire to be like and he’s a guy that I really want to go at.”
Bamba then said that he is a “better troller” than Embiid. Those are some strong words considering Embiid’s impressive Twitter game.
Bamba and Embiid already have me looking forward to the first Magic/Sixers regular season game. It’s going to be fun watching these two go at it over the next few years on the court and on social media.