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Tiki Barber Says Joel Embiid is “Being a Bitch”
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Tiki Barber doing hot take stuff in New York:
“If it was that bad, then don’t play. If it’s gonna hurt you to physically be hurt and someone might run into you, accidentally or otherwise, don’t play… It’s part of the risk of playing when you’re hurt. So stop being a bitch. You’ve been an elite athlete for a long time. You play hurt. You have to, especially when it means something to you. You don’t complain about it, you just don’t. Because if you do it’s like ‘give me sympathy.'”
Okay, to be fair, Embiid didn’t really complain about the Mikal Bridges thing too much. He said, in part, “I don’t know if it was dirty or not. I guess I’ve got to do a better job of protecting, especially that part [of my body]. … Tyrese was already gone, and it was kind of after the play. I just felt like it wasn’t necessary, but we move on. It is whatever. It’s playoff basketball. If that’s the reality of it, I guess we got to go out and be physical, too, and do it, too.” (from Gina Mizell at the Inquirer)
That sounds to me like Embiid asking a rhetorical question more than fishing for sympathy.
It’s funny to hear Tiki call Embiid a “bitch” considering Joel has played through more pain and discomfort than anybody else in the NBA going back 10 years now. He’s had the broken foot, two broken faces, Bell’s Palsy, issues with both knees, and now an appendectomy. The guy has played with a mask, knee braces, a thumb wrap, etc. Joel Embiid is a lot of things, but I don’t think “bitch” is one of them. You can rip the guy for grabbing Mitchell Robinson’s legs in the playoffs and for embellishing contact and being a troll, but I don’t think accusing the guy of being soft has any grounding in reality.
Speaking of rhetorical questions, would someone be described as a “bitch” if they cheated on their pregnant wife? Some are asking!
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com