Joel Embiid Says the NBA Is 'Kind Of' Soft: 'I'm Trying to Dominate'

Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid has one goal this season, and that is to dominate the competition. 

Speaking to The Athletic's Michael Lee, the 24-year-old explained why he aims to ruffle opponents' feathers on a nightly basis:

"I want to dominate. It's fun. One thing when I started playing in the league, I saw that a lot of guys are friendly. It's OK to be friendly, especially off the court. But on the court, I want to dominate. I don't really care about the friendships on the court. I got my friends. I got my family, which I'm close to. I got a couple of friends that I'm always around. I don't do anything. I don't need to hang out with a lot of people.

“So me always talking trash ... nowadays the league is kind of soft. I'm trying to dominate and if you dominate, you're going to be hated because you're going to talk so much stuff.”

So far this season, Embiid hasn't shied away from talking trash. 

Just ask Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond, whom the Sixers big man referred to as a "bum" after a recent 39-point, 17-rebound eruption against his Eastern Conference foe: 

Needless to say, Embiid has been backing up his smack talk in a big way this year. 

Entering Friday night's tilt against the Charlotte Hornets, Embiid is averaging a career-high 27.7 points, 12.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.3 blocks per game while shooting 48.5 percent from the field. He's also committing a career-low 2.9 turnovers a night after coughing up the rock more than 3.7 times a game in each of his first two healthy seasons. 

If that production holds up as the 2018-19 campaign progresses, Embiid figures to chirp even more than he was before.