Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid
After the Philadephia 76ers took care of the Brooklyn Nets 112-104 in overtime on Thursday night behind the 39 points and 16 rebounds from Joel Embiid. He declared himself the best player world and his strong play carried over from the All-Star game last Sunday in Chicago.
“For sure,” Embiid said via ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. “The All-Star Game was fun. Being there in the fourth quarter, doing my thing at the end of the game, I thought it was great.
“But the All-Star Game, just proving I’m here, I belong, and being the best player in the world, I just intend to keep coming out every single night and just play hard and trying to get wins and just go out and try to win a championship.”
Embiid is averaging 23.3 points, 12.0 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game for the Sixers through 40 games.
However, if you ask Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley about Embiid they will say he is playing ‘Soft’.
Earlier this month, Embiid went one for ten in a 112-101 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
“I shoot the ball the way I do,” Embiid told reporters via Inquirer. “Tonight, I missed a lot of wide-open looks… So it’s just on to the next one. Some nights you make some. Some night you don’t.”
During halftime of the TNT broadcast of the Bucks and Sixers game, O’Neal called out Embiid for his horrible play against Giannis Antetokounmpo, stated that the Sixers’ All-Star was playing soft with “a capital T-T-T-T-T.”
“When you go 1 for 10, it ain’t your coach’s fault, it ain’t your teammates’ fault, it’s your fault, period,” Shaq said.
Shaq pulled out the diagrams to show why Embiid is so soft
Charles Barkley took it a step further and called the whole Sixers’ team soft for being underachievers and stated that they are the NBA’s version of the Cleveland Browns. The Browns have a lot of talent like the Sixers, but haven’t been able to put things together.
“I picked the Sixers to get to the finals. I think they are the softest, mentally weakest team that had a bunch of talent,” Barkley said. “They are the Cleveland Browns of the NBA. They got a lot of talent, and they talk the talk, and that’s it.”
Chuck has some thoughts about the Sixers. 👀
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Oscar Robertson Thinks Embiid Should put his Money Where his Mouth is
Robertson was a guest on Saturday night’s episode of The Jump on ABC and during a segment of who needs to change their game to better benefit the Sixers between Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. Robertson stated, “They should have kept that shooter [J.J. Redick] that they sent to New Orleans and got another like him because they are inside too much that big center stays inside they are going to be in trouble.”
As for Embiid’s comments that he is the best player in the world, “You can only tell, that when they throw the ball up,” said Robertson.
The Milwaukee Bucks were able to hold Embiid on Saturday night to just 5-18 shooting from the floor in 29 minutes of play, which resulted in a 119-98 loss.
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