Joel Embiid After Fight: 'You Gotta Be A Broad Street Bully'

PHILADELPHIA, PA — If it's not enough that he averages more than 20 points and 10 rebounds a game and dominates the court pretty much whenever he's healthy. No, Sixers superstar center Joel Embiid also endears himself to Philadelphia with his non-basketball related activities, too.

During the third quarter of Wednesday night's blowout win against the Minnesota Timberwolves — a dominating performance that left the Sixers as the NBA's only undefeated team at 4-0 — Embiid got into a fight with fellow big man Karl-Anthony Towns of Minnesota.

It was less of a fight than a tangle of outsized limbs spinning like two grizzlies beneath the basket. The pair have a history of trash talking that served as kindling; it didn't take more than an aggressive move from Towns and a shove from Embiid to send it all up in flames.

No punch thrown seemed to land. The pair rolled to the floor, the benches cleared, both Towns and Embiid were ejected.

Embiid shadowboxed on his way out of the arena, to the raucous delight of the crowd.

"I was built for this city and they were built for me," Embiid said in a postgame press conference, praising the crowd for their support. "You gotta be a Broad Street Bully."

As the two massive centers tumbled to the ground, Embiid's teammate Ben Simmons leapt between the men, wrapped his forearm around Towns' chest, and pinned him to ground while others pulled Embiid away. "I'll always have my teammate's back," Simmons, who was deemed a "peacemaker" by the referees, said afterwards.

The fight then devolved onto social media. Towns mocked a few of Embiid's notorious quotes (at 1:45 a.m.), Embiid swiftly responded by 2:15 a.m.

The NBA has not yet announced any suspensions for Embiid or Towns, though some further punitive measure seems likely. An investigation into the fight is ongoing, with some decision probable Thursday, according to multiple reports, including one in the Inquirer.

The undefeated Sixers head to Portland to take on the Trail Blazers on Saturday night.