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LaVar Ball and Joel Embiid Quash Beef After Lakers Game

Maybe we were actually seeing LaVar at his best. And it's kind of nice.
Screen capture via Twitter/ZachGelb

Mmmmmm…quashed beef…delicious….Wait, what? Oh. Sorry. Yes, this is an article about the quashed beef between LaVar Ball and Joel Embiid, and not the delicious food item. Because finally, maybe we're seeing the D-measuring contest between these two come to its end.

LaVar and Embiid have been going head-to-head for a minute now. It started with Embiid taking shots at Lonzo because his dad was running his mouth too much, and then LaVar clapped back, then Embiid said "fuck LaVar Ball" on Instagram, only to get fined $10,000 for that. And it spiraled so on and so on.

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But these are just jabs people take across the internet. It's a lot harder to stare someone down in the face and talk shit when you see that they're a real human being. And such was the way it was in the Lakers vs. 79ers postgame, when Embiid was introduced to LaVar himself. And the result is actually kinda sweet:

You can hear LaVar say, "Embiid, come on boy, bring me some noise. Don't be scared, I got yo ass now. Just playing. Good job." And after each of them asking how the other is, Embiid says, "Nah, you good—it's family." LaVar keeps on going and says, "But here's the smart thing: don't worry about nobody on the outside…You just keep playing, do your thing. They're trying to do some stuff to you, man. They may get you. But don't worry about them. See, I do my own thing, so they can't mess with me."

It's fairly easy to shit talk LaVar—he practically begs for it. But it's moments like these that he seems like a real human being. And you even catch a glimpse of that fatherly side that Lonzo wrote about in the Players Tribune.

Sure, he went on to do this:

Maybe invoking Trump isn't the smartest thing to do right now. Or at any time.

But at least we got to see a glimpse of that real LaVar as he faced down someone he shit talked. It also probably helped LaVar's mood that the Lakers won with an insane game-winning three from Brandon Ingram off of a Lonzo assist. So maybe we were literally seeing LaVar at his best. And it's kind of nice.