Shaquille O'Neal Gets Honest About Being Tired Of Joel Embiid

As the premier center alongside Nikola Jokic, Embiid faces criticism quite often. The latest is from Shaquille O'Neal, one of the NBA's greatest-ever centers. Despite his status, he is quite vocal with his criticisms of big men.

O'Neal did so with Dwight Howard in the past, which they only patched up in 2025. With Embiid, O'Neal believes that the 76ers' big man is not being receptive to the criticism he is receiving from media members like Shaq.

O'Neal Believes Embiid Cannot Take Criticism

As a vocal critic, O'Neal was always hard on other centers. Dwight Howard was his target all the time in the past. The same goes for Javale McGee, who was the primary target for the Shaqtin' a Fool segments on Inside the NBA.

He is hyper-critical of the big men, as he does not feel the modern big men can compare to himself and the rest of his era. O'Neal loves comparing the modern centers to the past's big men, which has led to some interesting discourse.

Recently, the only big men he loves giving compliments to are three-time MVP Nikola Jokic and two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. He is not ragging on Victor Wembanyama just yet, but he has said some incendiary statements about Embiid.

"Nobody now because of the bigs that are supposed to be big. The big that I would be tough on is the Joker, but he's the best center in the league. So I have to say nothing to him. And he has a championship, which means he knows what it takes," O'Neal said to HoopsHype.

"So I don't have to say anything to him. Wemby, he's still in that baby era. I try to be tough on Joel (Embiid), but apparently he can't take it. So I'll probably have to delete him from my program."

Embiid Should Stay Focused on the 76ers

With the 2025-26 season coming up for Philly, people are excited about the 76ers. They want to see Embiid coming back healthy, but that would take some time because he is still recovering from an injury.

Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain, and Paul George are his primary supporting cast. The first two are already good enough to contribute, but George had a troubled first season in the 2024-25 campaign.

Now that everyone is looking to stay healthy, the 76ers could be a challenging team to play against. They missed out on the Playoffs, but with the supporting cast alongside promising rookie VJ Edgecombe, the future is bright.

For Embiid, all he has to do is keep fighting and ignoring bad-faith criticism. O'Neal might be able to talk about Embiid in the future, but Joel has shown that he can learn from his mistakes and other people's criticisms before.