Joel Embiid, hoop star and social-media sitcom star
Whatever Christmas presents the four seniors from Palmyra High School were planning to buy several days before the holiday in that Cherry Hill sporting goods store, the thought left all their heads when they walked through the door. Back in the left corner, past the rack of sweat gear, had to be . . . it most clearly was . . . Joel Embiid.
Whatever Christmas presents the four seniors from Palmyra High School were planning to buy several days before the holiday in that Cherry Hill sporting goods store, the thought left all their heads when they walked through the door. Back in the left corner, past the rack of sweat gear, had to be . . . it most clearly was . . . Joel Embiid.
There are no 7-foot-2 impersonators.
Needing a proper autograph surface, the four Palmyra seniors went for a bin of mini-basketballs, each grabbing one to bring to the 76ers center. Their social approach to Embiid had nothing to do with his latest basketball feat.
"Who's better at FIFA, you or Ben Simmons?' " Palmyra senior Patrick Sherin asked Embiid.
Embiid, in that Modell's to help children from the Boys & Girls Club of Camden buy presents, laughed and said he was.
"We follow him on social media," Morgan Ciandella, another of the Palmyra group, said about the interchange, a reference to the video soccer game.
They knew Embiid had tweeted four days earlier, "@BenSimmons25 just got exposed in front of the world . . . He's trash in FIFA . . . Just cooked his [behind]. I'm the GOAT in FIFA."
As good as Embiid has turned out to be on the court, he's already contending on Twitter and Instagram for greatest of all time, sports division. His blossoming skills had shown early during the years he sat out, like when he courted LeBron James to come to the Sixers. Now, it's like he's writing 140-character sitcom segments, and he's quickly built a new audience separate from one that ever cared about the fate of the Sixers.
Sit in the second row during a Sixers game, and you might wind up with Embiid in your lap, but for his most devout fans, maybe head upstairs to the cheaper seats. Even some of the ushers follow Embiid on Twitter and Instagram.
"If you're a casual basketball fan and you're on Twitter, he has to be your favorite player," said Frank Sandefur, manning the portal at Section 218 before Wednesday's Knicks game.
In the seats of that section, Ben Franklin High students Austin Griffin, a sophomore, and Edward Washington, a senior, said they followed Embiid on Twitter, of course. Washington loved the time Embiid smashed away a shot by a little kid over the summer at the Sixers' Beach Jam. Griffin noted Embiid's recent trolling of a former adult film star on Instagram, returning fire on Mia Khalifa's put-down of the Sixers.
"She was looking for it," Embiid himself said of that one. "That doesn't work like that. I was just playing, of course. Now she knows . . ."
He means high-profile insults will be handled like he's protecting the rim. It's safe to say Embiid isn't running his stuff by a social media committee, but it's also quite clear he knows what lines he shouldn't cross. And sometimes he nails it, like Jan. 5, when he set up a tweet that looked like Donald Trump had tweeted out an #NBAVote endorsement of Embiid for the all-star game. Embiid's tweet:
That got retweeted 21,800 times. (But not by Trump).
"People who have never followed basketball are starting to follow it," said Kyle Fink, 20, a West Chester University student from Aston, sitting in the upper deck with Anthony Marano, 20, a Widener student who set up his phone to get instant notifications whenever Embiid tweets.
The Sixers obviously are aware that Embiid has opened a door to another audience, and not just with his play. Michael DiMarco of Egg Harbor Township, sitting with his 16-year-old son, Alex, said Alex had shown no interest in the Sixers before Embiid. The other day, Alex grabbed his father's phone to vote for Embiid for the All-Star Game on Twitter from a different device.
Talking in the stands, Fink and Marano even wondered jokingly whether maybe there are some social media team experts advising Embiid, a team of script writers. Embiid made it clear after Friday's shootaround that it's all him.
How often does he make himself laugh?
"All the time," Embiid said. "Everything I tweet - 'ah, should I do this? If I do this . . .' I just start laughing. So everything I do on social media is really funny to me. I actually think I have the best laugh out of anybody."
He gets all the jokes, all the references. Trust the process? Embiid announced he is The Process, which gets the upper deck chanting when he goes to the foul line. He recently subtweeted a random guy in Denver who had called him "about the coolest NBA bust that you will ever follow on Twitter" in the summer of 2014, making it part of his all-star Twitter campaign. And if there's any doubt Embiid's writing the tweets, it's doubtful the Sixers' brass would have had him tweet about the former general manager:
Wednesday, Hinkie, a rare tweeter, responded:
Embiid's Twitter response:
Does Embiid ever write a tweet and decide to hit delete - can't go there?
"No, one thing is, I want to be myself," Embiid said. "I'm not going to change for anybody, so I never hit the delete button. If I have something in my mind and I want to say, I'm going to say it."
His ideas are his own - "I just fire away."
You see Embiid and his raw emotion on the court. He showed another side at that Modell's last month. He had shown up a few minutes before the Boys and Girls bus, wearing gray sweats and a hooded top, hood up. He looked at a couple of sweats on racks, took a quick glance at himself in a mirror, grabbed his mini-basketball from the bin, dribbled it a couple of times, and then showed off a little soccer footwork.
He took the hood off and began throwing a little football. When the school bus from Camden pulled up, he was sitting at a table signing autographed photos to hand out before the shopping began. He talked to a Sixers employee about what to say. The employee suggested just saying happy holidays, glad you could be here, that kind of thing.
"Why don't you say that?" Embiid said. It didn't sound like some arrogant demand. It wasn't a star move so much as a shy move, a 22-year-old not really into giving a speech.
The children all lined up for the autographed photos. Each exchange with Embiid was pretty much the same for each of the boys and girls.
"Thank you," they said.
"You're welcome," Embiid said to each thank you, looking each in the eye.
"Oh, God," said 12-year-old Losan Ruiz from Camden, closest to the table as Embiid got up, earning a smile from the big man.
"Why is he so tall?" Ruiz said later, recalling what was going through his head.
It makes sense that Embiid really lets his playful side loose on Twitter and that there's a natural audience for it, and that his play this season has allowed him to be that way. Call him a generational spokesman, his Twitter following 522,000 and growing, 506,000 on Instagram. The last few days, Embiid got wrestling superstar Triple H and his 4.4 million Twitter followers involved in his campaign to make the All-Star Game. (Others who tweeted their all-star support to their own followings include Mike Trout, Jordan Matthews, Meek Mill, and Allen Iverson.)
Embiid's latest bid to get a date with Rihanna if he can make the All-Star Game is almost Seinfeld-worthy - "There is my chance to finally be with my CRUSH so I need your help y'all ha" - since there's an arc to it, going back to his earlier attempts on Twitter to get a date with her. Embiid included the earlier tweet from August 2014: "This is the truth . . . I was trying to get with this famous girl and she said 'Come back when you're a All Star."
Of his Twitter persona, Embiid said Friday: "I'm just trying to be me, if people enjoy it, that's great." He thanked all the "Twitter people."
Who else does he like from the NBA on Twitter?
"I don't know, they're all boring - KD used to be good back in the day," Embiid said of Kevin Durant. Like some other original artists, Embiid claims not to read too many other tweets or even go through his own timeline to see the responses.
When he's 30 years old, will he, too, be boring on Twitter?
"You know, in the back of my head, I think this is going to backfire at some point," Embiid said. "But before that day comes, I'm going to keep on going."
@jensenoffcampus