Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons to square off again in NBA All-Star Game

With Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons set to make their fourth and third NBA All-Star Game appearances, respectively, Philadelphia fans tuned in last night to see if the Sixers teammates would be Team LeBron or Team Durant teammates as well. Alas, no.

Embiid was Kevin Durant’s second pick after Brooklyn teammate, Kyrie Irving, while Ben is once again staying in the Klutch family, selected as the second reserve after Damian Lillard by LeBron James. Here was LeBron announcing his pick for Mr. Play Hard Every Possession (doesn’t quite roll off the tongue):

The most entertaining aspect of last night’s All-Star draft, at least for those outside of Utah, was the Jazz slander that continued following Wednesday night’s Sixers-Jazz game. As I’m sure you recall, Utah players were SUPER bitter about perceived slights from the officials in that game, and basically said their team doesn’t get any respect. Donovan Mitchell even went as far as to say that the Jazz won the game, in his personal opinion, and that the numbers on the scoreboard are just a metaphysical construct.

WELL, Utah’s two All-Stars, Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, ended up being the last players taken in the All-Star draft. LeBron explained that “just like in video games growing up, we never played with Utah. Ever as great as Karl Malone and John Stockton were, we would have never picked those guys in video games.” This doesn’t really track with players being picked in real life for an exhibition game, but, yeah Utah, it seems like no one respects you.

Back to our guys, Embiid and Simmons were on opposite All-Star sidelines each of the last two years as well, with Ben getting the better of Joel each time. Last year, Ben’s Team LeBron defeated Joel’s Team Giannis, 157-155. In 2019, Team LeBron topped Team Giannis, 178-164. Maybe the new captain this year will finally allow Embiid to earn some bragging rights in the Sixers locker room coming out of the All-Star break.

The two Sixers teammates did join forces for All-Star weekend during the 2018 Rising Stars game, playing for Team World alongside former Sixer Dario Saric. Naturally, Team World stomped Team USA that year, 155-124. I mean, look at this good-looking group.

Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

Either way, a Sixer is going to come out on top this weekend. Who ya got?