Joel Embiid had surgery on his right foot on Tuesday, more than one month after the team announced that he'd missing the entire 2015-16 season. Embiid posted this picture to Instagram:
The Sixers also issued a statement following the procedure:
Statement on @JoelEmbiid surgery today. pic.twitter.com/rj3XJSLkti
— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) August 19, 2015
The No. 3 pick of the 2014 NBA Draft, who missed all of his rookie year due to right foot injury, is expected to have "a bone graft procedure similar to the foot surgery of Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant," according to Spears. In July the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Embiid fractured the same right navicular bone that he did last year.
"A collective decision has been made that the best approach to promote full healing would be to proceed with a bone graft of the fracture site," Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie said in a statement in July. "We anticipate the procedure will take place in the next seven to 10 days and result in Joel missing the upcoming season."
Why it took so long for Embiid to undergo surgery, as opposed to that "seven to 10 days" that Hinkie said in that statement, is unclear. Embiid, though, is expected to be ready for training camp before the 2016-17 season, Spears noted.
But the team is clearly worried. In July the Inquirer reported that the Sixers were "concerned that this setback is career-threatening." That Philadelphia elected to select Duke big man Jahlil Okafor with the No. 3 overall pick during June's draft, despite already having the 6'11 Nerlens Noel -- the sixth overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft -- on the roster, is also telling.
During his one year at Kansas, Embiid also missed the Big 12 and NCAA Tournaments due to a stress fracture in his back. The last time he played in a game was 18 months ago.
Still, Embiid was projected by many to go No. 1 overall in the 2014 draft, to the Cavaliers, before Cleveland discovered his foot injury while administering a routine pre-draft physical. Instead, he fell to the Sixers at No. 3, and then underwent surgery to have two screws inserted into his right navicular bone.
How the 21-year-old Embiid re-injured his foot in unclear. The injury was discovered in June during a "routine checkup in San Francisco which revealed that Embiid's foot was in worse condition than it had been in his previous evaluation," reported the Inquirer in July.
Embiid is due to make a guaranteed $4.63 million. The Sixers have the option to pick up the third year of his contract for $4.83 million and the fourth year for $6.1 million.