The Philadelphia 76ers have a well-established history of tanking. Joel Embiid has abruptly gone missing with a knee injury that has bothered him since Jan. 20.
Embiid wanted to make clear that it is an actual knee injury that has kept him out of 12 of the team’s last 13 contests, not just an excuse to hold him out so the Sixers lose some basketball games.
“I’m not healthy,” Embiid said Saturday, via Keith Pompey of Philly.com. “I think my [left] knee [has a] bone bruise. It’s been on and off working out. It swells up a little bit, and then it kind of slows down.
“Like I said, it’s all about patience. But I’m not healthy.”
Embiid said he has been improving, but admitted that he knows better than to try to rush back into action.
“I missed two years and we had a lot of patience,” Embiid said. “This is not the time to lose patience.”
What’s interesting is that after Embiid made the comments, Sixers GM Bryan Colangelo said an MRI showed Embiid has a minor torn meniscus. The tear was discovered last month and Embiid played through it.
#Sixers Bryan Colangelo: MRI shows Joel Embiid has 'a very minor meniscal tear. It could have been pre-existing.'
— Tom Moore (@tmoore76ers) February 12, 2017
Embiid’s appearance at a Meek Mill concert made some people wonder about the nature of his injury, but dancing and playing an NBA game are two very different things. He’ll be back on the court as soon as he can. It has nothing to do with tanking.
