Charles Barkley had this to say about Joel Embiid sitting out at least the first three games of the season due to what the Sixers are calling "left knee injury management":
"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 Joel Embiid.
Video: @NBAonTNT
pic.twitter.com/c1g9VFjluE
— On Pattison (@OnPattison) October 25, 2024
Let's break this down from the top.
- Stop the presses, but did you all know a new maximum extension meant that injuries went away? Moreover, did you know that the new deal ensured that Embiid would face no risk of injury over the course of this season and future seasons? I'm just as flabbergasted as you are.
- No, you're not steel workers or nurses. Steel workers and nurses typically don't have Embiid's physical measurements. They also do not apply those physical measurements on a basketball court at the highest level of the game. They usually don't have extensive injury histories involving their most important extremities, either.
- Yes, you are playing basketball. You are entertainers. Entertainers historically get treated differently than the overwhelming majority of non-entertainers. Why is this the time to bring the hammer down?
- Everyone told Embiid that his regular season doesn't matter anymore. He could do no right until the playoffs. So, when you diminish him and take him for granted because the playoffs are all that matter, like any human, he's going to adjust his priorities. Can't say the playoffs are all that matter and then complain when he doesn't play in October.
- You're blaming him for this, but he told you that he was going to comply with the suggestions made by the team's medical staff.
"It's going to be tough. They know that if they have to punch me and slap me, take my stuff away for me not to get on that court, they're going to have to do it," Embiid said of how he'll balance managing his body with being a competitor on the third day of training camp. "I might get mad, I might curse people out. But, I think it's a relationship. We've been working together for years now."
"But, then again, I also let them know I’m a competitor. I’m going to want to go out there and play," he added. "So, I got to make sure they got to make those decisions and save me from myself."
Sounds like someone who is deferring to the people whose jobs it is to manage his health. By the way, that's a refreshing step up in maturity from the way things used to be.
- I've had this conversation so many times over the past 36 hours that I'm frankly yawning just thinking about it. If we knew back then what we know now, player health would almost certainly have been managed differently than it was back when the most vocal critics of the strategy were children. Ask Jamal Mashburn, Brad Daugherty, Doug Collins, Ralph Sampson and many others if they wish medical knowledge was as advanced back in their careers as it is now. So, please spare me with the "back in my day" talking point. Find another hit to play.
