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NBA 2020 | Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley savage ‘mentally weak’ Philadelphia 76ers

Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley have delivered shot after shot on the Philadelphia 76ers as their NBA struggles continue to mount.

Andrew McMurtryAndrew McMurtry
@AndrewMcMurtry
4 min read
February 8, 2020 - 12:55PM
Shaq on 76ers star's game: 'Embiid is playing soft'

Life is pretty tough in Philadelphia at the moment with rumours running wild over discontent in the locker room.

Reports the stars Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid are at odds as both men want to run the 76ers offence has led to the side dropping four straight and sitting well back in the Eastern Conference that they were expected to dominate.

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While fans will be hoping for an All-Star break reset and for Philly to bring back the winning feeling, it seems a long way off.

After their latest loss, a reasonably flattering 112-101 loss to league-leading Milkwaukee Bucks, the cracks have become painfully obvious.

It doesn’t usually take much for legends to weigh in on the Sixers but on TNT before the match, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal were in savage agreement over the horrific performance of the Sixers in recent times, which has seen their season record drop to 31-21.

“I picked the Sixers to make the finals,” Barkley began. “They are the softest, mentally weakest team that has a bunch of talent. They are the Cleveland Browns of the NBA.”

Shaq responded with “damn”.

“They’ve got a lot of talent and they talk the talk and that’s it,” Barkley continued. “Last summer, and I feel for it too because our boss is Steve Fiorello, he had me on the Cleveland Browns bandwagon. They came out and told everybody how good they were going to be. Then they got punched in the mouth in game one and punched in the mouth for the rest of the season. The Philadelphia 76ers, my pre-season pick to get to the finals, they just talk. They are weak mentally and physically.

“This team right here, they’ve got too many talented players to be 25-0 at home and 2-25 on the road. That tells me they’re not tough mentally.”

Ouch — tell us what you really think.

The legends continued to savage Embiid’s recent performances.
The legends continued to savage Embiid’s recent performances.

O’Neal chimed in with some personal experience.

After not particularly getting on with Kobe Bryant in LA, the pair claimed three back-to-back titles together, a pairing Simmons and Embiid may need to emulate.

“I was at the Super Bowl with Ben and Joel, sitting right in between them and I said y’all need to get it together. I don’t want to hear no excuses about the coaches, I don’t want to hear nothing about you two, I don’t want to hear that, y’all need to get it together,” O’Neal said. “All that stuff about you got to be best friends, it’s been proven you do not have to be best friends off the court, but on the court, you’ve got to show respect, and you got to play and you got to play.

“I’m not going to say they’re soft. They have disappointed us a bit but I'm not going to call them soft. If they get it together, they can turn it around.”

As if it couldn’t get any worse for the 76ers, reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo tore Philly apart, moving seven games ahead of the Toronto Raptors in second in the East.

The Greek Freak nailed 36 points, 20 rebounds and six assists, the first time, he’s achieved the tally, while he also became the first player since Wilt Chamberlain to have five straight games of 30 points, 15 rebounds and five assists.

He celebrated with a dunk that had fans going nuts.

Simmons and Embiid combined for just 30 points.

At halftime, Barkley and O’Neal clapped back again.

Down 54-51, Embiid was struggling shooting one from 10. He finished the game with six from 26 from the field, easily the worst shooting percentage from the field of 23.1 per cent.

And he relented on not using the word “soft”.

“The difference between Giannis and Embiid is force – Giannis is playing with force and Embiid is playing S O F capital T,” Shaq said.

“At the other end, he’s not playing with force. He’s looking for the foul, he has that little bandaid on his little hand, waiting for the ref to call a foul, he don’t call the foul so he run back on defence like a little baby and he let this pass go. He is being SOF capital T.”

While Shaq was whacked for his take, the legend said it was only Embiid’s fault.

Ben Simmons was dragged into the debate.
Ben Simmons was dragged into the debate.

Barkley clapped back again, saying both Simmons and Embiid are the problem.

“The Sixers’ biggest problem is that they don’t have a leader,” Barkley began. “When I got to the NBA, I was fat and lazy and I thank god I met Moses Malone. I said ‘why am I not getting to play’. He said ‘you’re fat and lazy’. He made me lose 50 pounds to get in shape. We’ve given these guys so much to play in the NBA. When you give a guy $160 million, they must be thinking, ‘they think I’m great, I must be really really good, I don’t have to work on my game.
“They gave Ben Simmons $170 million and for the past two summers, they’ve said ‘Ben’s been working on his jump shot. I haven’t seen that. The notion that the Sixers have the sixth best record in the Eastern Conference is a joke.”

Barkley said it was tough to see as the 76ers and the Suns were the two teams he played for.

Former NBA star Kenny Smith added to say “Talent wise if you put what Ben Simmons and Embiid can do, they can match what Giannis can do”.

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/sport/american-sports/nba/nba-2020-shaquille-oneal-and-charles-barkley-savage-mentally-weak-philadelphia-76ers/news-story/2035b31153013a8309042a574800d3d6