Sixers and Joel Embiid obliterate Charles Barkley’s halftime take with Grizzlies win

Charles Barkley is never afraid to offer his opinions about the Sixers or Joel Embiid.

During halftime of the Sixers’ thrilling win against the Memphis Grizzlies Thursday, the TNT analyst didn’t offer much optimism about his former team.

“I worry about my Sixers. I think they got a chance, I don’t think they got a good chance,” Barkley said during TNT’s halftime show. “I don’t like their mental toughness, to be honest with you.”

In fairness to Barkley, the Sixers didn’t look great in the first half. Not only were they down at one point by 17 points, Embiid made just two of his 14 shots before halftime, making him an easy target for the Hall of Famer.

But Barkley was particularly tough on Embiid, who was playing through a non-COVID illness and a sore left foot. Barkley criticized the Sixers star for taking jump shots against smaller players and not driving the ball to the basket.

“He gets the ball too far out on the floor, so he really has to score on five guys,” Barkley said. “If he caught the ball closer on the paint, they’d have to double him every time, then that would get the other guys wide open shots.”

Of course, the Sixers would come back and win against the Grizzlies, largely due to the play of Embiid, who ended the game with an emphatic dunk following a late steal by his teammate, James Harden.

“Joel is a two-way player, and if you take away what someone does best, what else can they do to help the team? Tonight it was Joel,” Sixers head coach Doc Rivers told reporters following the game. “If you took away his offense, what else did he do? Well, he had six blocks, he had 19 rebounds, he had six assists. And that tells you just how great the guy is.”

After the game, Barkley didn’t address his halftime remarks about Sixers’ lack of “mental toughness,” but he did take the opportunity to praise Embiid.

“Joel, to me, is the most unguardable player in the NBA,” Barkley said, comparing the Sixers star favorably to two-time MVP Nikola Jokić of the Denver Nuggets.

“Even though Jokić gets all the assists and everything, this dude’s going to wreck you,” Barkley said of Embiid.

This is far from the first time Barkley has gone after Embiid. In 2019, Barkley criticized Embiid for not playing hard enough. A few months later, Barkley called the Sixers the “softest, mentally weakest team” in the NBA. Last year, Barkley claimed Embiid was distracted by his desire to be named the league’s MVP, ignoring the defender’s broken face.

Shaquille O’Neal was absent from TNT’s NBA coverage with an unspecified illness, but it must not be that serious considering how merciless his colleagues were Thursday night.

“This is like 13 years ago,” beamed host Ernie Johnson, pointing to the pre-Shaq Inside the NBA era.

“You know when Kenny call those? The good old days,” Barkley joked as he fist-bumped his TNT colleague, Kenny Smith.

“He’s not sick,” Smith joked. “Superman doesn’t get sick.”

A spokesperson Warner Bros. Discovery Sports said Shaq was simply under the weather, and is expected back on the network Tuesday night.

The Sixers won’t play much on NBC Sports Philadelphia over the next two weeks, but it’ll be fine if we get announcing like this.

Veteran play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan was terrific calling the Sixers’ comeback win, especially in the final seconds, when he managed to hit every note while also allowing the atmosphere at the Wells Fargo Center to seep into the broadcast.

“Harden.... Embiid.... Arrrrrrrrroooo!” Harlan said following Embiid’s dunk.

Harlan and Reggie Miller were also great when Embiid denied Grizzlies star Ja Morant at the basket with a little more than a minute remaining.

“This is elite… listen to me people, elite level rim protection right here,” Miller gushed.

“You almost can’t believe what you’re seeing,” Harlan responded.

“Oh my God!” Miller exclaimed. “This is unbelievable! Look at how high both of them are.”