Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid can’t seem to get rid of the injury bug as he will miss the remainder of the season. Embiid has been dealing with a knee injury, and the 76ers announced in a statement on Friday that he will be out for the year:
“The Philadelphia 76ers and Joel Embiid have been consulting with top specialists regarding ongoing issues with his left knee,” the statement said. “After further evaluation, it has been determined that he is medically unable to play and will miss the remainder of the season to focus on treatment and rehabilitation. We are working with medical experts to determine the exact treatment plan and will update the media when we have more information. The team and specialists will continue working with Joel to ensure the best path forward for his long-term health and performance.”
This puts the 76ers in a tricky spot as Joel Embiid is one of the best players in the league when healthy, and his contract reflects that. Embiid has over $192 million guaranteed in his contract, but the problem is that he hasn’t been able to play a lot. His current knee injury has obviously been very problematic, but Embiid has dealt with injury trouble throughout his career.
76ers GM Daryl Morey has been taking some blame for Embiid’s extension, but Bill Simmons doesn’t think that it is all his fault.
“This is absurd and I’m not going to allow it,” Simmons said during an episode of the Bill Simmons podcast. “Ultimately, one guy owns a basketball team and when it’s that amount of money, and it’s that big of a decision, that guy is making the call. He’s not deferring to the GM, he’s not going, ‘I don’t want to do this and that’s a lot of money, but Daryl (Morey) says we should so I’m just going to do it.’ It’s not happening, that’s not how the league works.”
Simmons isn’t completely defending Morey here, and if he were in the same position as the 76ers, he would’ve done things differently with Embiid.
“I’m not defending Daryl because I thought I would’ve rather resigned than give Embiid that extension, honestly. … I would’ve been like, ‘Listen, can we just talk buyout because this is the dumbest, I can’t believe that we’re doing this.’”
This season has not gone to plan for the 76ers as they are one of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference. Injuries have plagued this team all year, and as a result, they are 21-38 and on the outside looking in in terms of postseason positioning. Now, Joel Embiid is going to miss the remainder of the season.
The post Joel Embiid 76ers contract disaster is not Daryl Morey’s fault, says Bill Simmons appeared first on ClutchPoints.
