John Collins and the Atlanta Hawks got the last laugh against the Philadelphia 76ers last season after winning Game 7 on the road to advance to the conference finals. In the post game, Collins showed up in a shirt of…himself dunking on Embiid during that series. Everyone remembers the dunk. Ya know, the one he strangled Embiid and used him to project himself upwards? Right.

The Athletic released an article today regarding the beef between John Collins and Embiid. Its a really great article by Chris Kirschner that you can check out here if you’re willing to pony up the cost for The Athletic (it’s worth it and cheap, don’t be poor). 

How it Started: 

Three years ago Joel Embiid cracked some jokes about his buddy and former teammate Justin Anderson was driving around Atlanta with John Collins when Embiid called Anderson. Embiid was cracking jokes about Anderson joining a “rebuilding franchise”. Here’s a clip from the article on The Athletic. 

“You guys suck! You guys can’t even get on TNT, and you’re in Atlanta!” Embiid loudly screamed into the phone, as Anderson recalled with The Athletic at the time.”

Apparently that hurt John Collins feelings because he’s a baby and doesn’t understand a good joke. 

Embiid Dunk and Shimmy: 

Embiid Dominates the Hawks: 

At the time, it was a career-high performance for Embiid, scoring 49 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. 

The Ben Simmons Effect:

What we learned in the article in The Athletic, is that Joel Embiid wasn’t the only person who made John Collins upset. Turns out, John Collins was also mad at Ben Simmons. Why Ben Simmons? It stemmed from this video: 

Ben Simmons was playing video games with Karl Anthony Towns and Towns was ready to hop offline. Simmons then jokingly reminded Towns that the T-Wolves were playing the Hawks and had “plenty of time” to play another game. 

Obviously, the joke is on us. The Hawks embarrassed the 76ers and the entire city of Philadelphia in the NBA playoffs last year. Ben Simmons was so broken that he caused all this nonsense all offseason that by now, everyone is familiar with. 

Regardless, cheers to The Athletic. Pretty awesome article.