Sixers Roundup: Joel Embiid Says He’s 100% Healthy
Sixers’ center Joel Embiid (left) reiterated yesterday that he is 100% healthy after missing the last two seasons recovering from a fractured navicular bone in his right foot. | Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Every week we gather up the coverage, both local and national, of your Philadelphia 76ers.
This week is highlighted by the Sixers’ annual Beach Bash held in Avalon, NJ. Why is that such a big deal? The event was headlined by Joel Embiid, who is looking to make his NBA debut later this fall after missing his first two seasons recovering from surgeries to repair a fractured navicular bone in his right foot.
The NBA does not require that teams make injured players available to the media, so Embiid hasn’t spoken on the record to the media in almost two years, and fans have little more than twitter and instagram posts to get to know a player who, despite the time missed, is still one of the most popular and talented players on the team.
- Embiid reiterated that he is 100% [Marc Narducci, Philadelphia Inquirer]
- In that same article, he says he believes that any time restraints he will be under to start the season are more because he hasn’t played basketball in over two years, not for fear of re-injury.
- Embiid (and Ben Simmons) gave autographs at the event. Embiid signs his with “Trust The Process”. [SBNation]
- Joel Embiid emphatically blocked a little kids shot, then joked on twitter “Don’t worry lil man we still got the same amount of NBA games played”.
- You can find some videos from the beach bash in this article by USA Today, and also at CSNPhilly.com.
- NBA 2k17, set to be released on September 20th, started releasing ratings for some players, including Sixers rookies Ben Simmons (79), Joel Embiid (77), and Dario Saric (75).
- Head coach Brett Brown gave another interview, this one with Mike Gill on 97.3 FM ESPN. “There’s just a lot of unbelievable things to get excited about [with Embiid]”. You can listen to that here.
- There was also an actual transaction this week, with the Sixers trading Kendall Marshall for Tibor Pleiss and two 2017 second-round picks. Kevin Pelton of ESPN gave the Sixers an A for the trade.
- Speaking of Pelton, in his weekly NBA chat somebody asked him whether an incoming rookie class for one team had more combined upside than Simmons, Embiid, and Timothe Luwawu. He responded that there probably wasn’t.
- Marc Whittington at LibertyBallers.com wrote a good primer on the upcoming point guard class for the 2017 NBA draft. Spoiler: it’s a really good class.
- Bobby Marks wrote a recap of the Sixers’ summer moves for The Vertical.
- Podcast: The Sixers Beat on the move that defines the Sam Hinkie era, meanwhile The Rights to Ricky Sanchez had author Chuck Klosterman on as a guest.
That will wrap it up for this week’s roundup.
Derek Bodner covers the 76ers for Philadelphia magazine’s Sixers Post. Follow @DerekBodnerNBA on Twitter.
