Philadelphia 76ers Brett Brown Continues Player Development

Embiid Embraces Second Chance To Recover

But this is not the first time the Sixers have turned to a veteran to help bring a young player along.  The Sixers turned to Zydrunas Ilgauskas to help mentor the young NBA player from Camaroon. So far that pairing has proven to be better than hoped for. Why Ilgauskas? Because he had a similar surgery track and recovered fully. To the point, Ilgauskas had numerous surgeries to repair navicular bone injuries early on in his career which was the same injury Embiid suffered. He also had a follow up bone graft procedure similar to the one Embiid had this past summer. Ilgauskas is frequently cited as the success story for big men with navicular bone repair, as he returned to play ten healthy seasons after foot issues caused him a serious lapse in playing time early in his career.

"“Our doctors are saying it’s going ahead of schedule. At the end of the day, we know we have to show you and not just tell you. I will tell you that he is an elite talent, and I think he’ll be an elite player in this league.” – CEO Scott o’Neil"

This time the repairs seem to not only have taken, but the time away from the court has given Joel Embiid a chance to mature, to start fresh, and to absorb the loss of his younger brother.

But added to this recovery is the intense management of Dr. David T. Martin. Martin was hired to introduce a more formal sports science/ medicine element to the Sixers organization.

Martin has been attributed to the establishment of sports science and medicine in competitive sports.  It took almost no time before the good doctor had an assignment from the team – oversee the rehabilitation of top draft pick Joel Embiid.  We actually went into injury and rehab in a three part series: part one was merely announcing the success of the second surgery, part two was an indepth analysis of the injury and how sports science would benefit Embiid in his recovery, and part three was the aftermath and narrative about the team locating a team of experts to operate.  The final result has been impressive.

"“David Martin has done a fantastic job of overseeing this whole thing,” Brown said. “It’s probably the #1 part of his job right now is overseeing Joel’s recovery.”"

Was it a stroke of dumb luck that placed the expertise of Dr. Martin on the payroll of the team that needed expertise in that field almost immediately? Or was it that knowledge of the opportunity that afforded the Sixers enough certainty to select high upside players whose injuries had chased away other teams? In any case, Embiid is on track and he’s bringing a lot of optimism with him.

Next: Train the Trainers