The Philadelphia 76ers began the 2024 season with a (124-109) home loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Sixers played the game without two of their now Big 3 which features former MVP Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and newly signed Paul George.
Joel Embiid Played In The Olympics Then Missed NBA Season Opener
The aforementioned Embiid and George both missed the opener with injuries, and while both have no current timetable for their return, the belief is George will make his Sixers debut before Embiid makes his season debut.
Ever since he arrived in Philly as the No.3 overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft, the big Cameroonian has spent more time on the injured list than on the actual court.
Embiid’s brittle body has betrayed him more often than not, and this was never more apparent than in last season’s playoff run where he tore his meniscus, causing him to be hobbled and labored in the Sixers opening-round playoff loss to the New York Knicks.
In an attempt to keep their star player healthy throughout the season, the decision has been made that he won’t play back-to-back games anymore.
That decision isn’t sitting well with former Sixers legend Charles Barkley, who sounded off on Embiid and the team.
Charles Barkley Chastises Absent Superstar Joel Embiid
During Thursday’s episode of TNT’s “Inside The NBA,” the 1993 NBA MVP turned NBA analyst let it be known that he isn’t a fan of the move to have Embiid not play back-to-backs.
“He just signed for three years, $193 million … to play basketball,” Barkley said. “We’re not steel workers, we’re not nurses. … People who have real jobs and work 40-50 hours a week. We’re playing basketball at the most, four days a week, most of the time three days a week.
“You’re one of the three, four, five best players in the world. You cannot say, as a leader of that team, I’m not gonna play certain games,” he continued. “I thought that was a bad message. I was very disappointed in Joel Embiid.”
Unfortunately, this has become what you get from Embiid, who, as Barkley stated, is one of the top five players on the planet, but just isn’t reliable.
NBA Opens Investigation Surrounding Embiid
Following Embiid’s comments, which seemed to really hit home when Sixers president and CEO Daryl Morey told ESPN NBA analyst Tim Bontemps that the team wants to avoid Embiid and the aforementioned George playing back-to-backs, Embiid took things a tad bit further:
“If I had to guess, I would probably never play back-to-backs the rest of my career.”
Because of this the league is now investigating the move, and while no one knows what will come from it, to hear them doing it sends a bit of a red flag to the Sixers and Embiid.
Big Money, Low Availability: Embiid Injury Prone
In his now ten-year career Embiid has played in 433 career games, but also missed 431 games. Meaning he’s missing games at a 48 percent clip. That includes the 39 games he played in last season. That was the least amount of games he’s played since the first two years of his career, when he played in 31 total games.
