NBA legend Charles Barkley gets real as usual answering Chris Webber‘s question about the underachieving Philadelphia 76ers, Barkley’s former team. The 76ers famously went through “The Process” — losing games and winning draft picks — in order to climb out of the NBA basement. Trouble is it looks like The Process only bought them a short ladder — and the climb has been stalled.
What’s the problem? Barkley is frank: the 76ers two biggest stars have to “grow” as players. “It’s time for Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons to grow up,” Barkley says.
Barkley comes down hard on Embiid’s allegedly below-par conditioning (“Embiid had got to get in shape”) and on Simmons’s inability to impact a game with his shooting even as his career goes forward. Simmons’s shooting reluctance may have been acceptable as a rookie, but Barkley says “we should not be all these years in and Ben Simmons won’t shoot.”
“They gave both of them guys $150 million. Listen, if I gave anybody $150 million I should be able to tell them what to do,” Barkley says.
