Don’t know if Joel Embiid is paying attention to the chatter from the TNT studio anymore, but Charles Barkley is not letting up. The Sixers legend went from manifesting the 2025 title for Philadelphia to giving up on the team. He’s not so subtly blaming it on whatever Embiid has going on. This week he sort of defended Embiid from the noise on Inside the NBA. The theme continued on The Steam Room podcast. But with Chuck suggesting a fix. It’s a solution that worked for a very young Chuckster too.

Similar to what he said on Inside the NBA, Barkley blasted whoever leaked details from the 76ers team meetings to the media. Word got around about Joel Embiid’s tardiness impacting the team and The Process himself slammed whoever leaked it. Chuck agreed with Embiid there, yet he said, “You [Embiid] got to do better. You can’t be late. ‘Cuz when you’re late all the time, you telling people I don’t care about your time.”

To solve Embiid’s alleged tardy antics, Sir Charles suggested the Sixers organization use the methods they used in 1984. “Now you know what you really need? Billy Cunningham.” There’s a reason Ernie Johnson laughed at that.

To the uninitiated, Billy Cunningham went from playing with the Sixers to coaching them. He was rookie Charles Barkley’s first taskmaster in the NBA. He was a tough coach who didn’t give Chuckster or any player on the star-studded Sixers roster of the ’70s and ’80s any leniency. By Chuck’s description, the Kangaroo Kid’s coaching style was effective.

“Billy Cunningham will leave his Mama. Billy Cunningham, well he left everybody,” Chuck said on the podcast and further added there were extreme consequences to being late on Billy Cunningham’s bus. “If he saw you walking to the bus at five o’clock, you’re late, we’re taking off.”

Barkley wished Embiid had Billy Cunningham (or maybe Nick Nurse should take note) because, “You would learn after the first two or three times you late and it cost you a fortune, you would be on time.” Or Barkley recommends Embiid could just be on time. He’s speaking from experience too.

Charles Barkley got the Billy Cunningham fix

There’s no eyewitness account of Billy Cunningham’s tactics to tackle tardiness or maybe he didn’t have to dole out such punishments often. But when the 76ers selected the Auburn forward in the 1984 NBA Draft, he was especially hard on Chuck to get in shape.

Rookie Barkley was expected to be a starter after being heavily recruited by Philly. They traded another player behind the coach’s back to induce him to start Chuck. But Cunningham told Chuck, “You are not starting until you get your a– in shape.” Back then, a young hot-tempered Barkley wanted to punch the coach.

Decades later, Barkley said, “It was really a blessing to have a coach who held me to a high standard. To this day, we are really good friends.” If the 76ers want to go the Billy Cunningham route for Joel Embiid, Barkley won’t be opposed.