There has been some talk about Joel Embiid needing to improve his conditioning this offseason, and one of the best big men to ever play the game feels that criticism is warranted.
In an appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio on Monday, Boston Celtics legend Robert Parish was asked how he would have approached going up against Embiid if the two played in the same era. Parish said he would focus on making Embiid run as much as possible.
“Run his jock strap off, for starters, because he’s not in shape,” Parish said, as transcribed by Rob Tornoe of Philly.com. “I would make him play defense and run his jock strap off every chance I got. By the fourth quarter, he’d be drained. Trust me on that.”
Embiid has dealt with a number of injuries early in his career, and this was really the first full season he has played in. For what it’s worth, Philly.com’s Bob Ford questioned the 7-footer’s conditioning recently as well.
“For Joel Embiid to fully tap his outlandish potential, he has to be in better conditioning shape and be more fundamentally sound,” Ford wrote in a column last week. “He made fundamental mistakes, partly because he has flawed fundamentals, but he was also gassed. Embiid’s dedication to conditioning has been questioned before. This time, at the end of his first really extended season of basketball, it really affected him.”
Embiid talks a lot of trash, and he drew some pushback over the way he walked off the court following the Philadelphia 76ers’ playoff loss to the Boston Celtics. He’s a star player with a big personality, so he’s going to hear a lot of stuff like that. That said, he’d be wise to take Parish’s advice this offseason.
