The Los Angeles Lakers made no surprised at Thursday night’s NBA Draft when they selected UCLA point guard Lonzo Ball with the second overall pick.
Shortly after the pick was made, Lonzo’s father, LaVar, who is known to make some bold statements, said that he believes the addition of Lonzo will lead to the Lakers making the playoffs this upcoming season for the first time since 2013.
Apparently not everyone agrees with him, as two Philadelphia 76ers players, Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, took to Twitter to take shots at both Lonzo and LaVar:
Please dunk on him so hard that his daddy runs on the court to save him.. https://t.co/cMvt5RYiSQ
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) June 22, 2017
When Lonzo heard about Embiid and Simmons’ tweet, he got a kick out of it, via Arash Markazi of ESPN:
Lonzo Ball after being told about the Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons tweets. "Ha. That's funny."
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) June 23, 2017
The 76ers owned the top overall pick in this year’s draft after acquiring it from the Boston Celtics. They used that pick on Washington point guard Markelle Fultz.
Both the 76ers and Lakers have struggled in recent years as they are going through rebuilding processes, but after years of lottery picks both historic franchises seem to now be on the rise.
The Lakers add Ball to a young core or Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, Ivica Zubac and Larry Nance Jr. in addition to a ton of cap space next summer.
Philadelphia’s future also looks bright, if they can all stay healthy, as Embiid, Simmons and Fultz are also joined by Dario Saric and Jahlil Okafor.
With Simmons and Embiid’s tweets, and Ball and Fultz already playing each other in the Pac-12 in college, there could be a rivalry brewing between the two teams.
