Shaq reprimands Joel Embiid for not playing in back-to-back games this season

Joel Embiid told ESPN’s Tim Bontemps that he likely won’t play in back-to-back games for the rest of his career. The Philadelphia 76ers star, who just turned 30 in March, has struggled with injuries throughout his career, and this season is no different.

The hope is that Embiid stays healthy enough that he can’t miss any time throughout the season and maintains his health for a playoff run. But Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal had a lot of thoughts about this decision.

“I was so disappointed that Joel Embiid said he wasn’t going to play back-to-back games,” Barkley said on “NBA on TNT” before the season opener between the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks. “You are one of the three, four or five best players in the world. As the leader of this team, you can’t say, “I’m not going to play certain games.” You can’t start the season like that. As the best player on this team and the leader, I would never go into a season and say I won’t play back-to-back games. I thought it was bad news.”

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O’Neal responded: “Not only that, it doesn’t make any sense. The league isn’t physical enough for him to say that. He’s a pick-and-popper, he’s not a big guy. You don’t get a double, you don’t get a triple, you don’t get badly fouled. There’s no reason to say, ‘I’m not playing back-to-back’.”

Embiid will not play this week due to a knee injury as the 76ers open their season.

It will be interesting to see if the plan to keep Embiid out of back-to-back games works or if it backfires for Philadelphia.