Not long before the 2024-25 NBA season commenced, the Philadelphia 76ers made a series of odd mistakes.
The first came when star big man Joel Embiid openly stated he’d be sitting out games during the season – before having suffered any type of injury. “If I had to guess, I would probably never play back-to-backs the rest of my career,” Embiid said.
Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey essentially said the exact same thing not long later. “We’re going to be smart about it. Part of being smart about it is having both Paul [George] and Joel probably not play many back-to-backs, if any,” Morey said.
Openly admitting that your star player is going to miss games isn’t a good look and the league clearly wasn’t happy. According to a report from ESPN’s Shams Charania, the league fined the 76ers for their comments.
“The NBA has fined the Philadelphia 76ers $100,000 for public statements around health status of All-NBA center Joel Embiid, sources tell ESPN,” Charania said.
The star center drew the ire of former NBA star big man Charles Barkley.
“He just signed for three years, $193 million. To play basketball. We’re not steel workers, we’re not nurses,” Barkley said last week. “People got real jobs, got to work 40-50 hours a week. We’re playing basketball, at the most, four days a week. Usually three days a week. He has the best backup in the league in [Andre] Drummond.”
Is the punishment enough?