{"id":602208,"date":"2026-02-14T05:52:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T05:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/602208\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T05:52:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T05:52:18","slug":"derik-queens-welcome-to-nba-moment-courtesy-of-joel-embiid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/602208\/","title":{"rendered":"Derik Queen&#8217;s &#8216;Welcome to NBA&#8217; moment courtesy of Joel Embiid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/new-orleans-pelicans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> rookie <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/derik-queen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Derik Queen<\/a> has been one of the pleasant surprises this season with his impressive all-around play. After a slow start, he has learned to adjust and become a consistent performer for the Pelicans.<\/p>\n<p>Queen was named as one of the participants in the Rising Stars at All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles. It is a cool accomplishment for the 21-year-old center, as the NBA acknowledged his hard work and talent.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/new-orleans-pelicans\/pelicans-news-derik-queen-new-orleans-history-not-seen-2010\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">While Queen has definitely held his own<\/a> against veterans, he admitted that his welcome-to-the-NBA moments were against two <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/YahooSports\/status\/2022508790286029152?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">established big men<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got cooked twice. By Embiid and AD (<a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/players\/b77109e3\/anthony-davis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anthony Davis<\/a>),\u201d said Queen in a video posted by Yahoo! Sports.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NBA&#8217;s Rising Stars share their &#8220;Welcome to the league&#8221; moments \ud83d\udc40 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xZ0oxtOUMC\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/xZ0oxtOUMC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/YahooSports\/status\/2022508790286029152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 14, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Queen did not specify a <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/philadelphia-76ers\/76ers-news-joel-embiid-shock-smooth-transition-dunk-bucks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">play where he was embarrassed by Embiid<\/a>, but it was definitely fresh in his mind, as the Pelicans and the 76ers faced each other just on February 1.<\/p>\n<p>Queen had nine points on 3-of-8 shooting, six rebounds, and two assists. Embiid, on the other hand, had a game-high 40 points on 13-of-27 shooting, 11 points, four assists, and two blocks.<\/p>\n<p>The Pelicans and the Mavericks have battled three times this season, with Davis suiting up only once, scoring a game-high 35 points on 16-of-28 shooting. He also tallied 17 rebounds and two assists. Queen was not too shabby with 19 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, and two steals.<\/p>\n<p>The Atlanta Hawks selected Queen, who starred for Maryland, as the 13th overall pick. He was traded to the Pelicans on draft day in exchange for Asa Newell and a first-round pick.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Orleans Pelicans rookie Derik Queen has been one of the pleasant surprises this season with his impressive&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[495,7,803,936,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":{"0":"post-602208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-derik-queen","11":"tag-joel-embiid","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-new-orleans","14":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","15":"tag-neworleans","16":"tag-neworleanspelicans","17":"tag-pelicans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116067430857910378","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}