NBA likely to investigate 76ers surrounding Joel Embiid’s participation

It is opening night for the 76ers, who will host the Bucks at the Wells Fargo Center on ESPN. However, there have been some storylines over the past few days that have loomed larger than Wednesday night’s matchup.

Joel Embiid (left knee injury management) and Paul George (left knee bone bruise) are both out for the opener. The NBA appears to be digging a little deeper into Embiid.

The NBA is “likely to begin an investigation later this week into the Philadelphia 76ers surrounding the player participation” of Embiid, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported about three hours prior to tip-off. 

Embiid suffered a left lateral meniscus injury last season. He returned at the very end of the regular season and the playoffs. He averaged 33 points and 10.8 rebounds in the Sixers’ first-round loss to the Knicks. Over the summer, he played for Team USA in Paris and struck gold.

A Sixers official expressed that Embiid, “is responding well to his individualized plan and is expected to ramp up his return to play activities this week,” on Tuesday. Embiid will be out all week and is set to be re-evaluated this weekend. 

The NBA has fined the Sixers multiple times for injury-reporting violations related to Embiid.

There have been a lot of things going around with Embiid’s health recently. He told Tim Bontemps of ESPN that he will probably never play back-to-backs for the rest of his career, and now Charania reports Tuesday that Embiid “is progressing well and ramping up.” Ramping up? From what?

76ers head coach Nick Nurse said Embiid suffered no setbacks in the Olympics and that things are “going according to plan,” but he is still not ready for the opener. Weird.

Embiid is either more hurt than the Sixers are allowing fans and media to believe. Or the plan was always for Embiid to not play in the opener as part of the plan to get him to the playoffs in one piece, lying to fans for a long period of time. Both are pretty pathetic. We may find the answer soon.

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