Andre Drummond on Past Feud with 76ers' Joel Embiid: 'There Was Never Any Real Beef'

Andre Drummond says his so-called feud with new Philadelphia 76ers teammate Joel Embiid was much ado about nothing.

“For me, there was never any real beef," Drummond told reporters Thursday. "... The way we play, sometimes we talk, I don't think it goes any further than that. … We're on the same team now.

"I have no malice toward Joel and I’m excited to be on the same team as him and make this work," he later added.

The Sixers signed Drummond to a one-year contract for the veteran's minimum this week. He will serve as Embiiid's primary backup, replacing Dwight Howard, who returned to the Los Angeles Lakers.

After Drummond's signing was announced, social media was flooded with posts referencing past run-ins between the new teammates.  In particular, a 2018 Embiid tweet calling Drummond a "bum" resurfaced.

Embiid also accused Drummond of not playing defense in 2017.

“Defensively, he doesn’t play any defense. When we started the game, he was being aggressive and he was talking, too. … So what I was like [in my mind] ‘You want to do that? I’m going to kick your [butt] then. So that’s what I did," Embiid said then. 

While it would be easy to accuse Drummond of trying to tone down the rivalry now that they're teammates, the two-time All-Star has been consistent in saying their "beef" was all basketball. In a B/R AMA last March, Drummond said the pair "never had a problem."