Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid has started up a rivalry of sorts with Andre Drummond. Here’s why we need a battle of the bigs.
As a 24-year-old NBA fan/analyst I can remember the days of my childhood when Shaq pretty much dominated the league as the “lone” great big man. We also had Tim Duncan in my era but he was a more of a finesse player who fundamentally killed any defender that guarded him.
Then for a few years it was the Dwight Howard show in Orlando, but honestly in my lifetime there never has been a great big man rivalry like there was in generations past.
Me being the NBA historian that I am, I often find myself watching old clips of the big men from earlier generations having all-out wars on the court.
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Rather it be the 90s, with Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, a young Shaq, Patrick Ewing, Dennis Rodman, Karl Malone, or the 80s with Moses Malone, Kevin McChale, Kareem, Robert Parish, Bill Laimbeer, Darryl Dawkins, a talented big man has always been a national treasure in the league.
Even when the NBA was just a few years old you had the rivalry of Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell being the main reason people wanted to watch NBA basketball.
Dare I say that clashes between giants are just great for the game so when I see the lack of competitive nature that Sixer’s center Joel Embiid and Detroit’s Andre Drummond have, I wonder if it could ever be the next great “Big Man Rivalry”.
A rivalry can’t be one-sided
Obviously in Friday night’s matchup Embiid and Philly crushed the Pistons 114-78, but all people are talking about is the fact that Drummond tried to shush Sixers fan after making a meaningless free throw.
We all know Embiid is quite the entertainer and he even came at Drummond on social media after their matchup on Oct. 24. Embiid tweeted that “he doesn’t play any defense”, after dropping 30 points (mostly on Drummond) in a 97-86 win over the Pistons in Detroit.
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The Sixers have swept the Pistons in both matchups and Embiid’s stats are far superior to Drummond’s in those contests. Embiid has averaged nearly 27 points per game, shot around 65 percent from the floor, and snagged nine rebounds through both games. On the contrary, the Sixers have held Drummond to an average of just 12 points and a plus-minus of -21.5.
Andre has four more rebounds, but other than that Embiid has been dominant.
Moving forward it would be nice to see if Drummond and the Pistons can actually put up a contest against the Embiid and the Sixers in their next matchup in April.
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After all, we can’t call it a rivalry if one player is dominant and the other player is being outperformed consistently. Although I love the direction the league is heading, the NBA still needs a consistent “clash of the titans” between two of its big men, so this Drummond/Embiid matchup will have to be much closer in the future.