During halftime of the Philadelphia 76ers’ 111-99 loss to the New York Knicks on Tuesday night, Hall of Famer Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal said on NBA on TNT that center Joel Embiid will “never win a championship until he gets his mind and attitude right.” The seven-time All-Star scored just 13 points in his season debut.
Shaq says Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid will never win an NBA championship until he changes his mind and attitude
Embiid, 30, missed the first six games of his eighth season because of a knee injury and was forced to sit for three more without pay for shoving Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes after a 124-107 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Nov. 7. The 7-footer showed signs of rust against New York, but Shaq was unwilling to make excuses.
“In New York, it’s a tough team to play,” said O’Neal. “But this was the fear I had for Joel Embiid. You announce arrogantly, ‘I’m not playing back-to-backs, Ernie. I’m not injured, but I’m sore. I’ll come back when I want to come back.’ Now, when you say things like that, you’re supposed to come back with extra energy.
"Joel Embiid will never win a championship until he gets his mind and his attitude right" 👀
Shaq gives his take on Embiid's first half performance and his future 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/GQJHHVPrfK
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) November 13, 2024
“0-3, I would have been 0-15. But you know what y’all would have said… ‘Hey, Shaq’s not playing well, but he’s playing aggressive.’ The plan that they are having, it’s not working. And not only that, I say this respectfully, Joel Embiid will never win a championship until he gets his mind and his attitude right.”
Against the Knicks on Tuesday, Embiid missed his first five shots from the floor, not scoring a field goal until he hit a 3-pointer with nine minutes left in the third.
Embiid finished with 13 points on just 2-of-11 shooting from the floor and eight free throws against the Knicks
Embiid made all eight of his free throws in the first half. However, he wasn’t nearly as dominant in the second half as he was in last season’s games. The five-time All-NBA member never established consistency.
“When he’s playing well, he’s kind of got command of the game at the offensive end,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said afterward. “He’s either creating good shots for himself or creating a lot of defensive schemes against him… That’s part of rhythm, that’s part of conditioning, all that kind of stuff. He’s a great shooter. That’ll come back, too, I think.”
Embiid finished just 2-of-11 from the floor in 26 minutes of action. For comparison, New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns had the upper hand all night, posting 21 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.
Towns played till the end for New York, while the 76ers sat Embiid the last few minutes to prevent him from racking up more than the 25 to 30 minutes the team had set for him pregame.
“You can do whatever you want in practice and scrimmage, but the game is a different story,” Embiid said afterward. “I’ll be fine.”
In response to Shaq’s comments, Howard Eskin of Sports Radio 94 WIP in Philadelphia wrote, “Shaq you can stop at NEVER,” referring to Embiid’s chances of winning a championship.
