Joel Embiid, Hassan Whiteside already in regular season form on Twitter

Hopefully Philly-Miami regular season games will be as entertaining as their two big men have been on social media this preseason.

The bulk of the NBA’s top contenders may be out west, but the Eastern Conference isn’t playing when it comes to Twitter battles. Of course, Joel Embiid is already a social media All-Star, so maybe Hassan Whiteside should think twice about engaging the Sixers’ big man there.

Then again, Whiteside can hold his own there too. He actually fired the first salvo, responding to another Twitter user who insinuated that Embiid said Whiteside can’t guard him even though The Process went 1-for-7 from the floor in the Sixers’ 119-95 preseason win on Friday night.

Whiteside claimed the media was on Embiid’s side:

https://twitter.com/youngwhiteside/status/919040930845483008

That obviously got Embiid’s attention:

Shots fired, right? At least it sure sounds like it when you’re saying a guy would foul out in five minutes trying to check you.

After taking some time to call out Bleacher Report, Whiteside eventually responded to Embiid’s “softy” dis:

https://twitter.com/youngwhiteside/status/919054147160289280

Hitting a man with his injury history is a little below the belt. So Embiid played dirty himself, accusing Whiteside of caring about stats over team success:

Some of Basketball Twitter cringed a little at that one, as the analytics crowd doesn’t like plus-minus very much.

But in the end, Embiid finished things off with a semi-self-deprecating joke that also skewered Kevin Durant for his Twitter misadventures this offseason.

And remember folks, real games haven’t even started yet. Might want to get out extra popcorn when the Sixers and Heat battle it out this season. Oh, and definitely check Twitter after each game.