Andre Drummond is a Philadelphia 76er.

Still feels weird to say that, considering the back-and-forth beef with Joel Embiid that was once a top storyline in these parts.

But he’s here on a one-year deal to back up his former nemesis, and speaking today on his introductory Zoom call, he answered two questions about squashing the beef with his new teammate.

Question #1, from Ky Carlin, on the general nature of said beef:

Drummond: “I think for me there was never any real beef. At the end of the day it’s the game of basketball; it’s a heated game on both ends of the floor. We’re competitors, and the way we play sometimes we talk. I don’t think it ever goes any further than that. I don’t think there’s any real beef or any malice towards one another. It’s part of the game, and we’re on the same team now, so it’s nothing I’m really thinking about, nothing that’s really bothering me.”

Question #2, from myself, on whether he has to speak with Embiid and hash anything out, or whether that just sort of goes away when you become teammates:

Drummond: “I don’t think there’s anything to really hash out. Again, it’s the game of basketball, and trash talking is a part of the game. I don’t think it’s really anything that’s too… (there’s) nothing that has anything of meaning to it, at least to my knowledge. I don’t really care. I talk trash to everybody and that’s part of the game. I have no malice towards Joel and I’m excited to be on the same team as him and make this work.”

Embiid will probably say the same thing, I’d guess. We’ll see when camp begins and he’s back in front of the media.

Drummond also noted on the Zoom call that he’s always wanted to play for Doc Rivers. As for returning to Los Angeles, he says different trades and different changes brought it to a point where it “didn’t make sense” for him to go back there. So here he comes, to back up Embiid and take on a lesser role. He’s a 25 minutes a night guy who is going to come off the bench this season in a way that’s different from what he was doing with Detroit and Cleveland. We’ll see how it works. He definitely does not fit with Ben Simmons, so they’ll either have to stay away from Drummond/Simmons lineups or perhaps they end up trading Ben anyway.