Last year, when Joel Embiid was still working his way back to full health, the Philadelphia 76ers center told VICE Sports that he drinks “three or four pitchers” of Shirley Temples every day. As if that didn’t quite make his love for the drink clear enough, he later filed a trademark for “The Process” so he can slap it on pre-bottled Shirley Temples sometime in the near future.
Reportedly, of course.
Either way, with just about every NBA fan in the world knowing Embiid’s drink of choice, the 76ers are using it as a way to drum up some more All-Star votes for him with the deadline quickly approaching. According to ESPN’s Darren Rovell, the team recently sent media members ingredients to make their own Shirley Temples accompanied by a notecard featuring three simple steps to ensure it’s à la Embiid:
- Step 1: Combine 6 oz. lemon-lime soda, 1 oz. grenadine and ice in your favorite Sixers cup
- Step 2: Garnish with maraschino cherry
- Step 3: Drink, enjoy and vote for Joel Embiid for the NBA All-Star Game
Creative: The @sixers are sending the media ingredients to make Shirley Temples, @JoelEmbiid's favorite drink, in All-Star vote campaign pic.twitter.com/sru7HWnEzG
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 10, 2017
Following the first week of fan votes, Embiid trailed only LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Love amongst frontcourt players in the Eastern Conference. He has since generated about 60,000 votes from getting some of his teammates to vote for him on Twitter, as well as Meek Mill, Allen Iverson and 76ers legend Sam Hinkie. Embiid also earned himself close to 40,000 votes by fake retweeting Donald Trump, quoting Kanye West and trolling a hater who said he’s “about the coolest NBA bust that you will ever follow on Twitter.”
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In other words, nobody gets fan votes quite like Embiid and the 76ers. And it might all just be crazy enough to help him get into the All-Star Game as a rookie — you know, in addition to him living up to the hype and stuff.