Philadelphia 76ers have 'no chance' of reaching NBA Finals, says Charles Barkley
Wednesday 11 December 2019 12:39, UK
Charles Barkley said he believes his former team the Philadelphia 76ers have no chance of reaching the NBA Finals and called on Joel Embiid to play with greater intensity.
Embiid scored 22 points as the Sixers beat the Denver Nuggets 97-92 to extend their perfect home record to 11 consecutive wins.
But speaking on TNT's Inside the NBA following the 76ers' victory, Barkley was critical of Embiid and his opposite number, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic.
"If I was playing against a guy like Jokic, a guy who people think is a great center, I'm going off," he said. "When I played against great power forwards Karl Malone and Larry Bird, my antennas were up. I wanted to let them know, 'I'm the best power forward'. Tonight you saw these two centers, who are elite players, neither one of them [sent that message]. No intensity from either of them."
Fellow analyst Shaquille O'Neal agreed with Barkley's assessment: "I've always made it simple for big guys: score seven points a quarter. If you are a big guy and you can dominate, you should average 28 [points] per game."
Inside the NBA panellist Kenny Smith said: "Embiid is the best big guy in basketball - we don't consider Anthony Davis a big man in terms of the way he plays on the perimeter. The question is, does Embiid enjoy the fruits of the labour or the labour itself? When he was shaking his shoulders at the crowd, he should have still been locked in, because he wasn't dominating the game yet.
"For me, is the substance meeting the sizzle? This year, the sizzle is more. It showed tonight, we remember the shoulder shake more than anything else he did in the game."
Embiid spent much of the 2018-19 season in the MVP conversation but Barkley acknowledged the Philadelphia center has not played at that level this year so far.
"Giannis is the MVP favourite, then you've got LeBron, Anthony Davis and Luka Doncic right there [at a level below]. We talk more about Luka than Embiid! Embiid is the toughest player in the league to match up with but we don't talk about him the way we talk about Giannis, LeBron, AD, Luka and James Harden.
"It is frustrating for me because I picked the Sixers to get to the Finals. But they've got no chance.
"When the season started, there were two teams we thought could come out of the East - Milwaukee and Philadelphia. That was it. It was two teams. Right now, Boston and Toronto have played better [than the 76ers]. That shouldn't be."
The Inside panel also addressed how the current NBA react to analysis of their performances from former players.
"When Charles and I say Joel Embiid isn't playing well, people think it's hate. It's not. We see greatness in him," O'Neal he said. "Twenty-two points is OK, but it ain't great.
"When you have two guys [in Charles and myself] who have been where you are trying to go, it can't be criticism. It can only be information. Kareen Abdul-Jabbar used to criticise me all the time but I knew he was right and he was trying to help me get to the next level.
"We are not criticising Embiid. We are saying 'you could be great but you aren't playing hard enough, 22 isn't enough to get you to the next level, do you want to be good or do you want to be great? If you want to be great, give me 28 or 30. If you want to be great, go and watch Giannis'. He wants to be great."
"We have all been in championship roles and we understand what that looks like. And [how Embiid played] did not look like that tonight," Smith said. "When I watched Milwaukee beat the Clippers last Friday night, the Bucks played in that championship role."
"When the Clippers came to Milwaukee, Giannis just said, 'we want you to know we are here and if you get to the Finals, we will be there'. And they stomped them by 30," Barkley said. "I don't see that from Denver and I don't see it from my Sixers."
