Sixers star Joel Embiid has been diagnosed with a displaced flap — a tear — of his left meniscus and is still discussing treatment options with his doctors and the team, two sources familiar with the matter tell Shams Charania and Joe Vardon of The Athletic.
Rest and rehab or surgery are the two options being considered, according to Charania and Vardon.
It sounds like a decision will be made by Monday, per The Athletic. If Embiid were to undergo surgery, he would be out for an extended period of time; there are different types of surgeries for a torn meniscus, with varying recovery timelines.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Thursday that Embiid would be held out over the weekend while the team sorted out a plan of treatment. At the time, it was called a lateral meniscus injury in his left knee, but further testing has reportedly revealed a tear.
Regardless of what decision is made, it sounds like Embiid’s odds of repeating as MVP in 2023/24 are slim to none. He will miss his 14th game today and can miss no more than 17 games to qualify for postseason awards like MVP.
Embiid was considered the frontrunner for the award again in 2023/24, with superlative statistics across the board: a league-high 35.3 PPG, 11.3 RPG, 5.7 APG, 1.1 SPG and 1.8 BPG on .533/.366/.883 shooting in 34 games (34.0 MPG). He has posted a .645 true shooting percentage this season.
More importantly, Philadelphia will obviously miss its best player if Embiid is out for a substantial amount of time. On the season, the 76ers are 30-17, but they’re 26-8 when Embiid plays and just 4-9 without him.
Embiid suffered the injury during a Tuesday matchup between the Warriors and Sixers, when Golden State forward Jonathan Kuminga fell on his leg. The incident took place in the fourth quarter and Embiid left the court under his own power.
The seven-time All-Star missed three games early last month due to knee soreness before sitting out matchups against the Nuggets and Trail Blazers on Saturday and Monday, respectively, due to the same issue.
Embiid, 29, is under contract through at least 2026, with a player option for 2026/27.
Get well soon… The process!
The best ability is availability…
If Joel can avoid surgery and miss a week/two, and not have to worry about further injuring the knee, that would be great. If he has surgery, he’s likely to be back by early/mid March. Whatever the case, the most important thing is that Joel is fully healthy when he comes back. The 76ers have a 30-17 record right now, and if he misses 15? More games, the 76ers should still be no lower than the 6th seed in the East, with 20 games to make up some ground. As long as they are in the playoffs and Joel is healthy, the 76ers will at minimum play in the ECF and I think when Embiid is healthy, they are the best team in the NBA (26-8 in games with Embiid in the lineup. 3 of those games that were losses in which Joel was injured early in the game. #HealthyEmbiidBITW
This is on the league’s heads, they’re incompetents destroying basketball, as are the front offices who draw their talent from the intellectually impoverished B-school world. The ruleset and officiation have reached a state of near ruin – rules that arise naturally from a deep understanding of the game on the immediate level have been replaced with literal abstractions clearly concocted by people who have no basketball talent and therefore no concrete understanding of the inner nature of the game.
Players should pool their resources and form a player-owned league. Of course this would bring the vicious weight of the corporate power structure to bear on their heads, who knows how far they’d go to stop such a thing, but at the end of the day they have a unique leverage that most people don’t, which is that they’re absolutely irreplaceable – the league can’t just say, yo check this guy out, he’s like 85% as good as Embiid, pretty much the same thing right?
that said a lot of it is on the player association too, they gotta get someone in there who knows what they’re doing, the league is straight up laughing at them
It’s about money folks. The players and the league want to get paid. The money comes from fans paying to watch in person, or paying to watch on television or stream. That payment comes with ads. More people watch games, and in turn more watch ads when the best players play. ESPN and media rights holders pressure the league to make them play. They don’t play. Less people watch. Less money. Must then come up with ways to make guys play.
right, that’s exactly why the owners have to be cut out of the equation. they’ll prioritize profit at the expense of the players’ well-being. a player-owned league still has an incentive to make a profit, but they won’t choose to kill themselves in the process. and just because the players agreed to it doesn’t mean it’s not an idiotic rule, award voters have always weighted performances by the amount of games played
It wasn’t the type of impact that causes an injury unless you have a pre-existing problem. Entirely possible Embiid doesn’t suffer a career altering injury if he’d been able to rest it for 5-10 games
Philly and Embiid are getting what they deserve. Philly went along with Embiid’s obsession with matching Jokic with a 2nd MVP. Matching Jokic with a title was secondary to Embiid getting another MVP trophy. Every game was making sure Embiid maxed out his stats.
The league is not at fault. The Players Association agreed to the 65-game rule. It should NOT have mattered in Embiid’s case anyway with his medical history. Philly should have told him long ago it wasn’t going to happen because they needed him healthy and fresh for a playoff run.
Philly and Embiid have ensured one thing …. Embiid will go down in history as the #2 center of this era behind Jokic ….. Jokic put up the monster numbers, and won MVP’s, and won a ring. Embiid just chased stats and got hurt.
You are as arrogantly stupid as your father Rick. And stop liking your own comments. The rest of your useless and clueless diatribe on Joel I projectile vomit to.
I liked his comment. It’s all very true and Jokic is much better
Facts!
@preaching …. Embiid will be spending this June on vacation with the family ….. Again! …… Watching Jokic win another ring, and Finals MVP trophy ….. Again!
I actually would love to see Embiid prove everyone wrong in the playoffs. He just simply hasn’t, and it is the main reason he isn’t on the same level as Jokic
We will see – the Clippers have been better lately, but can they stay healthy by the time the playoffs start? Repeating is hard, but Jokic’s Nuggets might just pull it off.
“[D]eserve”? You really just said the dude deserves this because he wanted the MVP?
Getting what they deserve? Seek help
He’s had a great season and was named an All-Star starter. The Sixers are very well set up for this summer with tons of cap space and Maxey’s low cap hold.
I wonder if this will change their deadline approach. Say Embiid gets a season-ending surgery…would they then consider trading Tobias Harris (expiring) for bad expiring money and a first-rounder? Trading Oubre for a good second, etc.
They could always re-sign those guys with the cap space this summer. No way they operate as an over-the-cap team, the whole point of not extending Maxey yet was this summer’s cap space.
Get well first. Sixers will miss him. Sixers should pick up Olynyk. Time for Bamba to mamba.
All this talk about MVP is for the weak-minded. Other than the winner getting a bonus who GAF? This aint Tennis.
It will be funny when Sixers pass second round without him this year. People forget that Toby was leading player in both Detroit and LA.
And where did those pistons/clippers teams go?
Toby has been in Philly for almost all of those 2nd round exits.
Get The Surgery. We’ve seen Joel play hurt every dang year. Fix it. Tell them, you’ll do the surgery if they go out and get a freaking player to fill the void.
Furkan, House, and a FRP for Miles Bridges, done deal.
Dude is a bucket getter.
Just do the surgery, I think it is the best option for his future. If he skips the surgery, that could destroy the rest of his career.
What if he retires????
Every year it’s something with Embiid…
Every year… Dude is going for the poster of load management…
Best to get the surgery and focus on a plan to get through next season…
Well, he didnt deserve the MVP last year so I guess itll even out.
Ring should be the only worry anyway.