Max Verstappen Fanboy Joel Embiid Makes Wild Comment on Opponents After Italian GP Drama

Back in December 2021, when Max Verstappen clinched his maiden Formula 1 championship, Joel Embiid was one of the first NBA stars to jump online and celebrate. The Philadelphia 76ers center shared his unfiltered joy on social media, proving that his love for racing wasn’t a surface-level hobby. “I’m very passionate about F1. Growing up in Cameroon, I lived for soccer and F1,” Embiid admitted earlier this year, and his online activity has only reinforced that point. Just as fans gather in living rooms across the globe to dissect every twist and turn, Embiid has made it routine to give his own two cents after the big moments on the track.

That habit was on full display during the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix. Watching from afar, Embiid quickly took to X after Max Verstappen’s collision with Lando Norris, placing the blame on the stewards for taking too long to penalize Norris. His loyalty to Verstappen has been unwavering, making him one of the most vocal NBA players tied to the F1 world. Much like LeBron James’s deep connection to soccer or Steph Curry’s immersion in golf, Embiid has carved out his own cross-sport identity. Only in his case, it’s about the raw passion of a fan, once again proving he can’t resist weighing in when the F1 drama heats up.

The backdrop was Monza on 7 September 2025,  a high-speed Italian Grand Prix that finished with Max Verstappen on top and a sideshow inside McLaren that quickly became the weekend story. As the dust settled on the podium, Joel Embiid jumped into the conversation on X with a line that summed up how many fans felt about McLaren’s intervention: “These papaya rules are something else lmao….. Oscar is a better man than me.” The post went viral almost immediately, feeding into the broader debate about whether McLaren’s late-race swap of positions was fair or simply a team-management fix.

The sequence on track was straightforward but loaded with consequence: Norris pitted and suffered a slow stop, which briefly left him behind teammate Oscar Piastri. McLaren then instructed Piastri to give the place back to Norris to restore the previous running order, a call that many saw as the team overriding on-track merit to correct a team error. Piastri initially voiced the frustration many felt with the directive, calling the end “a little incident” but otherwise taking it in stride, “Just struggled a bit through the first part of the race. The car wasn’t exactly how I liked it. Once the tyres went away, it felt a bit better which is never a great sign. Happy with the points and I will take it,” he admitted.

The radio exchanges and post-race comments made clear why the term “papaya rules” — McLaren’s internal code for how teammates should race, suddenly felt contradictory to fans and pundits who had expected the team to avoid manufactured outcomes.

That is exactly the beat that Verstappen fanboy Embiid leaned into with his X post, and it dovetails with how Max Verstappen has publicly reacted to the concept of McLaren’s “papaya rules.”  When asked about the incident at Monza, Verstappen dismissed the phrasing as pointless and said he “wouldn’t have done that” in a similar spot,  Verstappen’s immediate on-track amusement at the Monza swap (and the later, terser comments captured in driver press notes) only amplified the sense that even rival champions found the swap odd.

In short: Embiid’s late-afternoon X jab landed with a striking 1.5 million views, because it echoed a wider view voiced by drivers and media that McLaren’s attempt to be “fair” may have done the opposite.

Joel Embiid balances recovery with family time away from Sixers

Joel Embiid’s extended absence has left the Philadelphia 76ers relying heavily on their younger core, with Tyrese Maxey leading the charge. As Ramona Shelburne noted, “All the videos I’ve seen, all the word I get out of Philly is that Tyrese Maxey, and [Jared] McCain, and the younger guys like VJ Edgecombe—they’ve all been in the gym all summer long.” That work ethic stands in contrast to Embiid’s quieter offseason, one shaped by recovery from knee surgery and lingering health issues.

ESPN’s veteran insider put it bluntly: “These guys, Embiid and Paul George, missed a lot of time last year that young group, they may not wait.”

Away from the spotlight, however, Embiid has been spending time with his wife Anne de Paula and their children in Rio de Janeiro. While his timeline for a full return remains uncertain, the images reflect a player prioritizing health and family as he eyes a comeback. Embiid himself summed up his resilience during last year’s playoffs: “It’s been tough. But I’m not a quitter.” For now, the Sixers’ future sits in the balance, as the team waits to see whether their franchise cornerstone can recover in time to rejoin a roster slowly being reshaped by its hungry young stars.