Just How Bad is Joel Embiid’s Injury?

Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid injured his knee during Friday night’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers, and the injury might be a bit worse than it appeared.

It finally happened on Friday night. The moment Philadelphia 76ers fans had been dreading for quite some time — their young rookie star Joel Embiid got injured.

Embiid missed the first two years of his career due to recovering from foot surgery, so when he finally debuted this season, fans were very worried that he would be fragile, at risk for injury at any point this season. Embiid proved to hold up pretty well for a player who seemed to be injury prone coming into his NBA career, even dove into the crowd for loose balls on multiple occasions, putting his body on the line for this team.

While fans were worried that his seemingly careless plays where he went after loose balls would put him at risk for injury, the first notable injury of the season that occurred on Friday was a very minor looking one at first glance. The play was big — Embiid emphatically put down a monster dunk — but the part where he sustained the injury was fairly minor, he came down on both feet, and hyperextended his knee just a bit.

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Embiid was on the floor for a bit, but got up, limping. Embiid ran (yes, ran, after limping just seconds earlier) into the locker room, and then ran back out a few minutes later. The team reported that he had just a knee contusion, and returned to play a few minutes later.

He would come out again, and return to the locker room a few more times. The tally of him leaving and returning was up to three by the time the night was over, but Embiid did end up on the bench for the final minutes of the game (but was, at one point, ruled out for the remainder of the game due to injury).

Now, a day later, Embiid is not playing on a scheduled rest day due to a back-to-back game. Fans weren’t going to see him anyway, but are still wondering how bad his injury is.

The team has not reported anything of substance yet about it, but the actions the team took going into their game against the Atlanta Hawks showed there may be some issues with Embiid’s injury.

The main action taken was that the team said there was no timetable for Embiid’s return, and also recalled Richaun Holmes from the D-League.

Holmes coming back from the D-League in itself doesn’t seem like an indication that Embiid’s knee is in much trouble (since he wasn’t going to play anyway on Saturday, so it would make sense for the Sixers to bring Holmes back since they would be down a center), but the fact that the Sixers indicated to Keith Pompey that the call-up was because of Embiid’s injury, things get a bit interesting.

Why call up a player because of an injury if that player he’s replacing was already scheduled to be out on Saturday?

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The Sixers may be trying to acclimate Holmes back with the Sixers because Embiid won’t be able to play on Tuesday or Wednesday next week, or could even be preparing for worse than that — with Embiid possibly missing a few weeks or more.

All of what follows is speculation — the moves and what the team is saying indicate that Embiid should be expected to miss at least one game after Saturday.

Knee injuries can be pretty bad for NBA players, so Sixers fans should be hoping with all of their might that Embiid’s knee hyperextension is nothing serious, and just a precaution to bring up Holmes to help fill in, even if it is for further than Saturday’s game.

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While the reaction is to immediately push off any hopes of the playoffs for the Sixers this year if Embiid is out for an extended period of time, Embiid wasn’t with the team for the last several minutes of the game on Saturday, and those minutes were crucial for the team getting a win. Embiid is certainly the centerpiece, but the team isn’t completely awful without him.