Stephen A. Smith is disappointed in Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal.
It won’t be the first time and it certainly won’t be the last.
This summer, Barkley claimed that Joel Embiid had to be “a little embarrassed” by his performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics. His and Shaq’s critiques of the Philadelphia 76ers big man continued, as they said during the NBA’s Opening Night Tuesday that they were disappointed in Embiid’s statement that he wouldn’t play in back-to-back games.
It’s fair to say that neither one of them was or is a fan of Philly’s load management plan for its 30-year-old superstar.
“It doesn’t make sense, the league isn’t that physical for him to say that” 👀
Shaq & Chuck sound off on Embiid’s comments that he may not play in back-to-backs pic.twitter.com/IVcAH9lJxi
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) October 22, 2024
Smith didn’t take kindly to that on Wednesday’s First Take, saying he was disappointed in the NBA on TNT duo for being disappointed in Embiid and, more importantly, for their comments in the oft-injured center’s general direction.
“I’m disappointed in Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley,” said Smith. “I can’t believe what came out of their mouth. Joel Embiid has missed 329 games in his career. Let me go down the list — he missed 39 games; he only played in 39 games last year. Last season alone, 34 games missed because of his knee, four games missed because of his ankle, two games missed because of illness…This is what Joel Embiid has missed in his career — foot, knee, health protocols, back, hand, face, ankle, shoulder, calf, hip, elbow, ribs. I mean, damn, is there a part of the body that I missed?
“This dude has been heard over every imaginable injury you can find on the human body. Everything has happened to him but a heart attack — literally. Look at this. I have the numbers right in front of me. Why cannot you understand him going like this, ‘Yo, I’m trying to be ready for April, May, and June; I might need to play the back-to-back or whatever.’ We don’t like it, but we have not seen somebody miss games like this over an inordinate amount of bodily injuries.
“It’s gotten to the point where you might be afraid for Joel Embiid to get on a flight; he might get hurt by flying. It might happen; you just don’t know. I understand — if it was anyone else, I’d get where they were coming from, but for Joel Embiid, who’s a monster who shows up and will bust your a**, I don’t understand how they could have a problem considering all the injuries he’s sustained.”
“This dude has been hurt over every imaginable injury you can find on a human body.” 😳
@stephenasmith reacts to recent comments on Joel Embiid’s availability 👀 pic.twitter.com/qfgruLZOwP
— First Take (@FirstTake) October 23, 2024
Based on how they’ve responded to being called out by Kendrick Perkins, we can only imagine how Shaq and Barkley will react to Smith’s “disappointment.”
