Charles Barkley is not a fan of Joel Embiid’s planned lighter schedule this year. And as is almost always the case when he’s not a fan of something, Barkley was not bashful in voicing his disagreement.
Weeks before the start of the season, Embiid said (per Tim Bontemps, ESPN), “If I had to guess, I would probably never play back-to-backs the rest of my career.”
On NBA Tip-Off, prior to TNT’s broadcast of Thursday night’s game between the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks, Barkley criticized that plan.
“He just signed for 3 years, $193 million — 3 years, $193 million — to play basketball,” Barkley said. “We’re not steel workers, we’re not nurses. Like, people who got like real jobs, who have to work like 40-50 hours a week. We’re playing basketball, at the most, four days a week. Most of the time three days a week.”
“He just signed for 3 years, $193 million… to play basketball. We’re not steel workers, we’re not nurses… We’re playing basketball, at the most, 4 days a week.” – Charles Barkley on the Sixers and Joel Embiid’s load management pic.twitter.com/ybNjKMUcw3
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 24, 2024
Embiid’s plan was corroborated by team president Daryl Morey, who also said that Paul George would be unlikely to play games on consecutive nights.
“We’re going to be smart about it,” Morey said, per Bontemps. “Part of being smart about it is having both Paul and Joel probably not play many back-to-backs, if any.”
In fairness, while Embiid has been one of the league’s best players throughout his career, he’s struggled to stay on the floor. He played a career-high 68 regular season games in 2021-22, then 66 en route to winning the MVP in 2022-23. Embiid missed more than half of the season in 2023-24, playing only 39 games. He did return for the play-in tournament win over the Miami Heat and then Philadelphia’s subsequent six-game loss to the New York Knicks in the first round.
As big men frequently struggle more with injuries later in their careers, it makes sense that both the 30-year-old Embiid and his team would want to be more cautious with his minutes going forward.
Barkley understood that. But he noted that with a capable backup in Andre Drummond, Embiid’s minutes could be monitored during back-to-backs while still having him play both games.
“He has the best backup in the league in Drummond,” Barkley said. “Just say, ‘I’m gonna play 25 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back, then Drummond plays.’ But to come out and say it in advance was stupidity by the Sixers. Period.”
[ESPN.com, Photo Credit: Photo Credit: TNT]
