By Brandon Apter, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid has played in 63 career games. He was declared by many as a bust or "the next Greg Oden". Safe to say, they were wrong. On Thursday night, Embiid was announced as one of the five Eastern Conference All-Star starters. The 7-foot-2 native of Cameroon followed up the All-Star selection with a 26-point, 16-rebound performance in a Sixers win in Boston, their first win over the Celtics this season.
Flash back to Embiid's early days in the NBA. In 2013, Joel had tweeted occasionally about a celebrity crush of his, Rihanna. The next year, Embiid tweeted that he was rejected by a famous girl. While many say that the famous girl was not Rihanna, there's still plenty of believers out there that know she's who he was referring to.
This is the truth… I was trying to get with this famous girl and she said " Come back when you're a All Star" bruhh pic.twitter.com/CFBnRqnKMA
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) August 17, 2014
After getting picked to go to the All-Star Game on Thursday, Sixers fans flooded Rihanna's Twitter about Embiid and TNT even asked the big man about her during his post-game interview and his response was priceless.
"She denied me back then, so why go with her again? I might have to pass that and move on to the next one… Trust the Process."@JoelEmbiid has a special message for @rihanna… 😳
🎙: @KristenLedlow #TNT pic.twitter.com/QHICx5jCCF
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) January 19, 2018
Which lucky celebrity will Embiid have his eyes on next? Or is he just playing hard to get? Either way, Joel Embiid will certainly relish the All-Star experience in Los Angeles in February.
