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NBA legends pick apart 76ers star Joel Embiid for not playing back-to-back: ‘It makes no sense’

NBA legends pick apart 76ers star Joel Embiid for not playing back-to-back: ‘It makes no sense’

Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal, who have never been shy about their criticism of today’s NBA stars, had a lot to say about former 76ers MVP Joel Embiid on Tuesday night.

While “Inside the NBA” helped kick off the 2024 NBA season ahead of the Celtics vs. Knicks opener, the two Basketball Hall of Famers weighed in on recent reports that Embiid may not just play in the 2024-25 season will play consecutive games. but the rest of his career.

Philadelphia’s star center will already miss his team’s opener against the Bucks on Wednesday, and a long history of injuries has prevented him from playing his best basketball in the playoffs.

What did Barkley and O’Neal say about Embiid? Here’s what you should know about the two legends’ comments, as well as the reasons why Embiid may take back-to-back breaks in the future.

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What did Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal say about Joel Embiid?

On the pregame show before the first NBA game of the season, Barkley addressed the topic of Embiid sitting out two consecutive games.

The former 76ers, Rockets and Suns forward said he was “disappointed” that Embiid may be intentionally sitting out games this season.

“You are one of the three, four, five best players in the world. As the leader of this team, you can’t say, ‘I’m not going to play certain games,'” Barkley said.

“I thought it was a bad message. I was very disappointed in Joel Embiid.”

O’Neal added to Barkley’s opinion by saying it “makes no sense” for Embiid to be sidelined in back-to-backs.

“The league isn’t that stressful for him to say. He’s a pick-and-popper. He’s not a big guy,” O’Neal said. “You don’t get doubles or triples, you don’t get flagrant fouls. There’s no reason to say, ‘I’m not playing in a row.'”

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Why doesn’t Joel Embiid play back-to-back games?

Recently, Tim Bontemps of ESPN published a story about how the 76ers are preparing to keep their stars, namely Embiid and Paul George, healthy for a possible playoff appearance. In the story, Embiid said that if he had to guess, he would “probably never play back-to-back games for the rest of his career.”

Philadelphia and its star center reportedly want to be as careful as possible with Embiid’s health this season. He has suffered a variety of injuries around the playoffs in the past, and last season he suffered a knee injury in January before returning to the floor just in time for the Round 1 game against the Knicks.

With George bringing his own injury concerns, the entire 76ers organization plans to maintain the health of its stars. Daryl Morey, the team’s president of basketball operations, said in the ESPN story that Embiid and George “probably wouldn’t play back-to-back often, if at all.”

Philadelphia has to do without these two stars in the first game. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Embiid and George will not be available for Wednesday’s game against the Bucks. Embiid is reportedly preparing for a return to the floor while George will be reevaluated later in the week.

The 76ers will likely be without two of their best players for a number of games this season, but that’s part of their plan in hopes of having a healthy playoff roster come April.