During a Monday appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio, Celtics legend Robert Parish fed into the belief that Joel Embiid isn't in the best conditioning shape by stating that he'd run circles around the Sixers star if the two big men played in the same era.
Parish's strategy surfaced after he was asked how he'd approach going up against Embiid. "Run his jock strap off, for starters, because he’s not in shape," the Basketball Hall of Famer said. "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."
As pointed out by Larry Brown Sports, last week Philly.com writer Bob Ford called out Embiid's underwhelming endurance. In that column, Ford said "For Joel Embiid to fully tap his outlandish potential, he has to be in better conditioning shape and be more fundamentally sound."
Ford also pointed out that Embiid (who basically played his first full season this year after many injuries early in his career) was "gassed" in Philly's playoff series against the Celtics. Ford wrote that "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."
One wonders if any of this has to do with Embiid leaving that Celtics series without shaking hands last week. Wouldn't hurt to hit the treadmill though.
