Stephen Curry Talks About ‘New Normal’ As He Nears Return
Ahead of his expected return from a knee condition that has sidelined him since January 30, Warriors star Stephen Curry held a press conference on Saturday to address questions about his lengthy recovery process, writes Anthony Slater of ESPN. Curry is listed as questionable for Sunday’s home game against Houston, but Slater states that he’s expected to play, barring any setbacks.
Curry, who has been suffering from patellofemoral pain syndrome (runner’s knee) in his right knee, said “yes and no” when asked if it’s something he’ll have to manage for the rest of his career.
“There’s nothing structurally wrong with my knee,” Curry explained. “So it’s not like I’m compromised out there. It is a new normal, though, if that makes sense.”
Curry first began experiencing pain and swelling in the knee during a January 24 workout and tried to play through it before opting for rest. He was expecting to return to the lineup quickly, but said it turned out to be “unpredictable.”
“I thought I was going to be out a week,” Curry said. “Ten days max. [But] every time I got on the court or tried to push it in that first month, there was always a reaction. You just knew it wasn’t healing as fast as you thought.”
He believed resting the knee would enable him to return after the All-Star break, but there wasn’t enough improvement by mid-February. He also targeted an Eastern road trip in March, according to Slater, but suffered a setback two weeks ago in Atlanta when he felt he was on the verge of returning.
“You’d start running and doing your normal [rehab] workout,” Curry said. “[Then] toward the end of however long the session was, you’d start to feel the pain creep back in and the next day it’d be awful. Played that song and dance so many times over the last two months.”
Although progress was slow, he made a breakthrough over the past week when he was cleared to participate in five-on-five scrimmages. If all goes well over the next 24 hours, he’ll be back on the court Sunday night, giving him about a week to prepare for the play-in tournament, with Golden State virtually locked into the 10th seed.
Curry said he never gave serious consideration to sitting out for the rest of the season, and coach Steve Kerr told reporters that the team never approached him with that suggestion.
“He’s the greatest face of a franchise that I’ve ever seen,” Kerr said. “We owe it to our fans to give them the opportunity to watch Steph Curry play basketball this year. And Steph doesn’t even think twice about that. That’s what he wants. That’s what we want. That’s what our fans want. So we’re going to do that.”
Injury Notes: Doncic, Embiid, Sabonis, Smart
With Luka Doncic dealing with a Grade 2 hamstring strain ahead of the postseason, the Lakers find themselves in a difficult position after the star guard led them to a strong second half showing.
Mark Medina of Essentially Sports spoke to three medical experts to get a better sense of the star guard’s injury and recovery outlook. They are Shaheen Jadidi, a primary care sports medicine physician at Endeavor Health, Jesse Morse, a sports medicine physician and non-surgical orthopedic specialist, and Nirav Pandya, a professor at UCSF in orthopedic surgery.
“I’m definitely concerned with a short turnaround,” Pandya said. “In general, these Grade 2 strains usually have a three-to-six-week time frame for players to return from that. When you have a short time period to come back into playoff-level intensity basketball, you really worry about two things. One, can a player come back? Two, even if they come back, how impactful can they be?”
Morse explained what the injury actually means for the layperson and how it impacts Doncic’s recovery.
“Grade 2s are partial tears. Think of a rope just to have a mental visual. A one-inch wide rope is now half-an-inch wide. You’re asking that half-an-inch tendon to do 100% of the work,” he said. “This is a minimum three-week injury, but you have to move mountains to get him back in three weeks. Even if he’s sleeping in hyperbaric chambers, doing stem cells and doing around-the-clock physical therapy in red light, he’s going to be at a very high-risk for reinjury. He’s had other hamstring injuries, so he’ll have a lot of scar tissue. The problem is that scar tissue is weaker and less flexible. Traditionally, that’s what leads to reinjury.”
The three experts went deep into what the rehab process will look like, Doncic’s timeline for return, and expectations for how he’ll play once he resumes on-court activity.
We have more injury news from around the league:
- Joel Embiid will miss the Sixers‘ game against the Pistons on Saturday due to oblique injury management and illness. Embiid played on Friday, but had previously expressed frustration with president of basketball operations Daryl Morey and the rest of the team after he was ruled out for Wednesday’s game due to illness. “I guess these guys decide to let me play or not,” Embiid said when asked about playing on Saturday, per Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer (subscriber link). “So whatever they tell me, I guess I got to follow.” Embiid did note that his right oblique, which he strained in February, took a hit in Friday’s game against the Wolves.
- Domantas Sabonis hasn’t suited up for the Kings since February 4 after suffering a left meniscus tear that required season-ending surgery. However, he was in attendance for Friday’s win against the Pelicans, according to Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee, and says that his goal is to return to on-court activity sometime in July (Twitter link). Sabonis told Anderson that he has been on crutches for the past six weeks.
- Lakers guard Marcus Smart will miss his seventh straight game Sunday at Dallas due to a right leg contusion, per Khobi Price of The California Post (Twitter link).
Austin Reaves Out 4-6 Weeks With Oblique Muscle Injury
The Lakers announced that Austin Reaves will miss the remainder of the regular season after being diagnosed with a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury, relays Khobi Price of The California Post (Twitter link). Reaves is expected to miss four-to-six weeks, sources tell ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link), which puts his projected return somewhere in the second or third round of the playoffs
Reaves, who left Thursday’s game early, underwent an MRI Saturday in Dallas on his left oblique/rib area, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Reaves tweaked something in his left side during the first half of the lopsided loss to Oklahoma City. He went to the locker room to have it checked, but was able to return to the game, finishing with 15 points in 27 minutes before being removed.
“I went back to get a rebound, overextended a little bit, and I felt something,” Reaves told reporters after the game. “But I feel decent right now, so we’ll see.”
McMenamin adds that Reaves had to get two MRIs done because the first one didn’t focus on the correct portion of his body.
“I don’t know where the chain of command lies with Dallas imaging, but they scanned the wrong area,” coach JJ Redick said. “Not on our end.”
It’s another devastating blow for the Lakers after Luka Doncic was diagnosed Friday with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain that will keep him out for the rest of the season and probably at least the first round of the playoffs.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday before Reaves’ MRI results were announced, Redick said the team is remaining strong in the face of the injuries, and its mission to clinch the No. 3 seed and advance through the first round hasn’t changed. “And we’ll see what happens with Luka,” he added.
Redick plans to expand the scoring responsibilities while Doncic and Reaves are unavailable, mentioning LeBron James, Luke Kennard, Rui Hachimura and Deandre Ayton as players who can expect to see larger roles in the offense.
Since Reaves returned to the lineup in early February, James has mostly settled in as a third option, contributing in other ways while Doncic and Reaves have been the primary play-makers. Over the past seven games, James is averaging 15.6 points, 7.3 rebounds and 7.3 assists. He’s taking just 11.7 shots per game in that span, well below his career average of 18.6.
“You got to flip the mindset a little bit when your role changes, whatever the case may be, or what’s needed out of [you for] the team,” James said. “So the mindset changes a little bit, for sure.”
Veteran guard Marcus Smart, who has missed the past six games with groin and ankle injuries, is now considered day-to-day, McMenamin adds, but he’s not certain to play against Dallas. Smart wasn’t able to fully participate in Saturday’s practice.
Redick plans to finish the season with an “all hands on deck approach,” stretching his normal rotation from nine to possibly 11 players. He stated that Kobe Bufkin, Nick Smith Jr. and Dalton Knecht will all join the team after participating in the G League playoffs Sunday night with the South Bay Lakers.
The injuries make L.A.’s hold on the third spot in the West somewhat tenuous after it looked solid earlier in the week. The Lakers currently have a one-game lead over Denver and a two-game cushion over Houston. After Sunday’s contest, they’ll host Oklahoma City on Tuesday, travel to Golden State on Thursday and then finish the season with home games against Phoenix on Friday and Utah on Sunday.
Nets Sign Malachi Smith To Two-Year Contract
3:00 pm: Smith’s contract is now official, per NBA.com’s transaction log.
9:49 am: Malachi Smith‘s second 10-day contract with the Nets expired overnight on Friday, but he’ll be sticking with the team for the rest of the season — and potentially beyond that.
According to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), the Nets and Smith have agreed to a two-year contract that will cover 2026/27 in addition to the rest of this season. While the exact terms of the deal aren’t yet known, it’s unlikely to include guaranteed money for next year.
A G League veteran who has also spent time with the Rip City Remix, Wisconsin Herd and Memphis Hustle since going undrafted out of Gonzaga in 2023, Smith spent most of this season with the Long Island Nets before being called up by Brooklyn on a 10-day deal in March.
The 6’4″ guard ended up signing a pair of 10-day deals with the Nets and has been a regular contributor off the bench in the first 10 NBA games of his career, averaging 7.3 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 2.0 assists in 18.2 minutes per night, with an excellent shooting line of .527/.545/1.000. The 26-year-old has made 29-of-55 shots from the floor, including 12-of-22 three-pointers.
“The mentality is leave it all on the floor,” Smith said after scoring 15 points against Atlanta on Friday (Facebook video link via YES Network) “I’m someone that has been praying for this opportunity and working for this opportunity for years, so I’m not going to take any minute for granted. I always tell myself, I don’t care if I get one minute or 10 minutes. I’m going to be able to go to sleep at night knowing I played as hard as I can, and whatever happens after that, I can live with the results.”
Although the Nets technically already have 15 players on standard contracts, one of those 15 – Tre Scott – is on a hardship 10-day deal, so Brooklyn will be able to bring back Smith without having to place anyone on waivers.
Smith, who signed a training camp contract that included a $42,650 partial guarantee and then made $73,153 on each of his two 10-day contracts, would earn a rest-of-season salary of $65,838 if he officially signs a new minimum-salary contract on Saturday, bringing his total NBA earnings this season to $254,794.
That total would dip to $247,479 (including a $58,523 rest-of-season salary) if he doesn’t re-sign until Sunday, though it could also come in higher if the Nets – who have the NBA’s lowest payroll – decide to give him more than the minimum using their remaining cap room.
Atlantic Notes: Knicks, Anunoby, George, Tatum
Although Karl-Anthony Towns sat out their blowout win over the Bulls on Friday due a right elbow impingement, the Knicks are nearing full health as the playoffs approach and their postseason rotation is beginning to take shape, Ian Begley of SNY writes.
On Friday, with Mitchell Robinson starting, head coach Mike Brown experimented by using Jeremy Sochan as the backup center and was pleased with the results, naming him the team’s defensive player of the game.
“It allowed us to do a lot of things like switch pick and rolls,” Brown said of using Sochan as a small-ball five. “It brought a different element to our game. Not just offensively with the speed, but defensively with switching a lot of things and just keeping the ball in front of us.”
While Robinson will take the majority of reserve center minutes in the playoffs, having Sochan as an option could allow Brown to go to the Towns-Robinson frontcourt more than he might otherwise.
Another notable change was that neither Jose Alvarado nor breakout rookie Mohamed Diawara played in the first three quarters. With Miles McBride and Landry Shamet healthy, Brown indicated that getting them back up to speed is crucial.
“Deuce is getting healthier and Landry’s getting healthy and trying to find minutes for those guys — both of those guys are capable of playing that (backup guard) spot — is going to be a priority because they’ve proven themselves this year for us,” he said.
We have more from around the Atlantic Division:
- Brown was surprised to hear that wing OG Anunoby has only made an All-Defensive team once in his career, Begley writes in the same article. The Knicks‘ head coach believes the 6’8″ forward is clearly deserving of being recognized a second time this season. “His versatility is just off the charts and you can do a lot of things with your defense because of him,” Brown said. “In my opinion, he deserves First Team All-Defense this year — and hopefully the powers that be will see it that way, too.” Anunoby agreed with his coach’s assessment: “I think I should’ve gotten it last year. I think I should get it this year. That’s definitely a goal of mine, coming into the season, especially defensively, being on the first team or second team — hopefully first.”
- Paul George is listed as probable for the Sixers‘ game against the Pistons today due to left knee injury management. Derek Bodner of PHLY Sports notes (via Twitter) that if George is able to play, this will mark his first back-to-back of the season. Since coming off his 25-game suspension, the nine-time All-Star has been rounding into form, averaging 27.0 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 3.2 steals in his past five games.
- There were concerns within the Celtics organization, including players, about trying to rebuild in-game chemistry with Jayson Tatum so soon before the playoffs, but the star wing has quickly alleviated any such concerns, Jay King writes for The Athletic. Boston is 10-2 with Tatum active and he has already been been named Player of the Week. Most importantly, King writes, Tatum hasn’t looked hesitant or uncertain about his body. He is driving at around the same rate as last season, and the defense has been elite when he’s on the floor. King notes that if the Celtics were to win the championship this season, his return could go down in history as one of the league’s all-time comebacks.
Hall Of Fame Officially Announces Class Of 2026
The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame officially unveiled its Class of 2026 on Saturday, prior to the tip-off of the Final Four in Indianapolis.
Many of the names listed had been previously reported, including Bucks’ head coach Doc Rivers, former Suns head coach Mike D’Antoni, and a trio of former men’s and women’s stars: Amar’e Stoudemire, Elena Delle Donne, and Candace Parker.
The rest of the class has now been revealed as well. On the men’s side, Gonzaga head coach Mark Few has been recognized for his storied collegiate coaching career. The press release notes that the two-time Naismith Coach of the Year is the “winningest active coach by winning percentage,” adding that he has recorded at least 20 wins in each one of his seasons as Gonzaga’s head coach. Few was also the assistant coach on the 2024 Olympic gold medal-winning men’s basketball team.
Referee Joey Crawford is the final inductee on the men’s side. Crawford refereed in the NBA for 39 seasons, from 1977 to 2016, including every NBA Finals from 1986 to 2015. His record includes 2561 regular-season games and 374 playoff games.
Also being inducted for women’s basketball is Chamique Holdsclaw, the six-time All-Star and former No. 1 overall pick and Rookie of the Year in 1999 for the Washington Mystics. Holdsclaw, who is a member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame as well, was an Olympic gold medalist in 2000, a two-time Naismith College player of the Year, and won three NCAA championships with Tennessee. She led the WNBA in scoring in 2002, led the league in rebounding twice, and made three All-WNBA teams.
Finally, the 1996 United States Women’s National Team rounds out the 2026 Hall of Fame class. The group, coached by Tara VanDerveer and featuring Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Dawn Staley, Teresa Edwards, Rebecca Lobo, and Katrina McClain, went 8-0 in competition and won by an average of over 30 points per game. In its press release, the Hall of Fame cites that team’s dominance as partially responsible for the launch of the WNBA later the same year.
Poll: Who Should Be NBA Rookie Of The Year?
The Mavericks fell to 24-53 with a loss to Orlando on Friday night, but it was another huge night for No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, who became the youngest player – and the first teenager – in NBA history to score at least 50 points in a game, per ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.
Flagg set a new career high by racking up 51 points on 19-of-30 shooting. The performance increased his full-season scoring average to 20.8 points per game, which ranks first among rookies. Among qualified rookies, he also ranks third in rebounds (6.6), second in assists (4.5), second in steals (1.2), and second in blocks (0.9) per game.
The 19-year-old is on track to become just the fourth rookie since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976 to average at least 20 points, six rebounds, and four assists per game, notes MacMahon. The other three are Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Luka Doncic.
“He should be Rookie of the Year. It’s unbelievable,” head coach Jason Kidd said of Flagg. “The country is not watching the same thing that we get to watch on a daily basis. The things that he’s done, he’s in rare air. He’s with the GOAT when you talk about MJ and what he did in his rookie year — and as a teenager.”
However, Flagg isn’t the current frontrunner for Rookie of the Year recognition. That honor belongs to his former college teammate Kon Knueppel, who earned 80 of 100 first-place votes in a Rookie of the Year straw poll recently conducted by Tim Bontemps of ESPN (Flagg received the other 20 first-place votes).
Knueppel, who has played 12 more games and 227 more total minutes than his former Duke co-star, has averaged 18.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.4 assists in 31.5 minutes per contest as a rookie for the Hornets.
Two major factors have given Knueppel the edge over Flagg in the eyes of many voters. For one, he’s having the best shooting season of any rookie in NBA history. The fourth overall picks leads the NBA with 264 made three-pointers and is knocking down 43.1% of his attempts, which also puts him among the league leaders in three-point percentage. Flagg isn’t having a bad shooting season – he has made 51.8% of his two-pointers – but he has converted just 29.3% of his shots from beyond the arc.
Additionally, while the Hornets are hardly a juggernaut, the emergence of the young squad has been one of the most fun NBA stories of the last few months. Charlotte hasn’t made the playoffs since 2016 and got off to an 11-23 start this season, but has since improved its record to 42-36. The team, which currently holds the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, has a real chance to end its postseason drought, and Knueppel has played a crucial role in that turnaround.
Flagg’s boosters would argue that it’s not his fault the banged-up Mavs essentially entered tank mode midway through the season and that he doesn’t have the same sort of supporting cast Knueppel does in Charlotte, where LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, and Miles Bridges are also having big years.
There’s even a recent precedent for a star rookie on a bad team winning Rookie of the Year over a fellow standout who had an important role on a playoff team — Victor Wembanyama of the 22-60 Spurs beat out Chet Holmgren of the 57-25 Spurs in 2024. But Wembanyama, who averaged over 20 points and 10 rebounds per game while leading the league in blocked shots, was even better two years ago than Flagg has been this season.
We want to know what you think. With apologies to VJ Edgecombe and a few other notable members of 2025’s draft class, Rookie of the Year has become a two-man race this season. So should Flagg or Knueppel win the award?
Vote in our poll and head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!
Who should be this season's NBA Rookie of the Year?
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Cooper Flagg (Mavericks) 50% (497)
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Kon Knueppel (Hornets) 50% (490)
Total votes: 987
Warriors’ Draymond Green Talks Contract, Future, Kerr
An ESPN report this week suggested that Draymond Green is unlikely to seriously consider leaving the Warriors in free agency this summer and that the more likely outcome is that he’ll either pick up his $27.7MM player option or turn it down in order to sign a new multiyear contract with Golden State.
Speaking to Tim Kawakami of The San Francisco Standard, Green suggested he has a path in mind, though it came with the caveat that he, agent Rich Paul, and the team still need to sit down and talk the situation through.
“Rich and I discussed it a couple months ago briefly,” Green said. “We haven’t talked much about it because we don’t deal with those things until the offseason. But I think in an ideal world, and again, this is me talking without me talking to my representation so Rich will probably kill me. But in an ideal world, I think the best path would be to decline and extend. If I had it my way, that would be the best path forward.”
A scenario in which Green declines that option in order to sign a new contract could benefit both him and the Warriors. The veteran forward would likely receive an overall guarantee exceeding $27.7MM while earning multiyear security, and Golden State could reduce his 2026/27 salary in order to create more cap flexibility for the coming season.
That added cap flexibility, in turn, would be useful if the Warriors go star-hunting this summer, a path that wouldn’t surprise Green.
“Playing for a great organization with a great ownership group and a great front office group like we have, those possibilities are always there,” he told Kawakami. “I wouldn’t necessarily call it big-name hunting. (Team owner) Joe (Lacob) is just always trying to win. And whatever is going to give him the best possible chance to win, that’s what he’s going to win. If that’s a big name, if that’s a small name, whatever is going to give him the best possible chance to be a winner. That’s what he’s going to do. And you have to know that in playing here.”
Green, candid as ever, offered up several more interesting tidbits during his conversation with Kawakami. While the story is worth checking out in full for Warriors fans, here are a few additional highlights:
On how long he and longtime teammate Stephen Curry will continue playing:
“When we do speak about it, we speak of it in terms of summers. ‘How many more summers am I willing to give to this?’ Because ultimately, that’s what it boils down to, right? How many more summers am I taking away from things with my kids? How many more summers am I willing to build my whole life around preparing for an NBA season?
“… We don’t speak on it in the sense of, ‘Man, how many years I’m going to go, how long till you walk out, do we walk out together?’ We haven’t discussed it in that manner. What we do discuss is, ‘Man, how many more summers do you think you could do this?’ … And quite honestly, the last we spoke about it, we both agreed we had two or three more summers. So we’ll see.”
On his belief that head coach Steve Kerr will be back for 2026/27:
“We don’t want to play for anyone else. We built this thing together. Just as much impact as Steph Curry has had, as I’ve had, as Klay (Thompson) had, Steve’s had. We built this thing up from the ground. … I think when you look at (him) not signing an extension, I think Steve sits in the same place I sit. I’m not going to do anything that straps this team. I’m not going to do anything that handcuffs this organization. I think Steve sits in that same place. So when he didn’t sign an extension, none of us made much of it because we know he should and will have the choice to be here. And we all want to finish with him.”
On how he wants his Warriors tenure to eventually end:
“I’ve seen too many guys leave a place and it’s nasty. And I just don’t understand why it’s that way. It don’t have to be that way. So I want to make sure that whenever my time is up here, that it ends the way it’s supposed to end. That it doesn’t end with me bitter, with them bitter. It ends the way it’s supposed to end: Everybody’s happy, we’ve done great things, and we move forward.”
Southwest Notes: Kidd, Cuban, Zion, Clarke, Memphis
Responding in more detail on Friday to the implication that he was involved in last season’s decision to trade Luka Doncic to Los Angeles, Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd refuted Mark Cuban‘s statements and reiterated that he wasn’t informed of the blockbuster deal that shocked the NBA until an agreement was in place, per Christian Clark of The Athletic and Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal.
“Cuban has mentioned that I knew about the trade,” Kidd said. “Unfortunately, as I have said, I was not part of the process. I was informed at the 11th hour. And that’s the truth.”
Cuban, the Mavs’ former majority owner who is now a minority shareholder in the franchise, made a reference during a recent podcast appearance to “our coach and general manager” trading Doncic. According to Kidd, he called Cuban “right away” to discuss those remarks and stressed that he was telling the truth about his involvement – or lack thereof – in Dallas’ controversial trade with the Lakers.
“I was called (by former Mavs GM) Nico (Harrison into) the room, and he told me that there was a trade that was going to go public at 11 o’clock,” Kidd explained. “That’s what happened. That’s the details of the conversation. I waited until 11 o’clock, and that trade, the world changed.”
In a subscriber-only column for The Dallas Morning News, Tim Cowlishaw argues that by implicating Kidd, Cuban is ignoring his own involvement in the most unpopular transaction in team history — after all, the ownership group that Cuban sold control of the team to had final say on the deal.
We have more from around the Southwest:
- By appearing in his 61st game of the season on Friday, Pelicans forward Zion Williamson has now ensured that at least 80% of his $42.17MM salary for 2026/27 will be guaranteed entering the offseason, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. The remaining 20% would be guaranteed if Williamson meets certain weight-related benchmarks or if he remains under contract through at least July 15, which should be a lock.
- Lucas Finton of The Memphis Commercial Appeal has more details on Brandon Clarke‘s arrest in Arkansas, reporting that the Grizzlies forward led local deputies on a “miles-long chase” and was driving over 100 miles per hour. When he was eventually stopped, over 230 grams of kratom were found in his possession, per an arrest affidavit. Kratom, described by the Mayo Clinic as a herbal extract that can act as a stimulant at lower doses and a sedative for pain relief at higher doses, is legal in Tennessee but is considered a Schedule 1 controlled substance in Arkansas.
- Lakers star LeBron James drew the ire of NBA fans in Memphis when he suggested in the latest episode of the Bob Does Sports YouTube show that the Grizzlies should move from Memphis to Nashville, as Devon Henderson of The Athletic and Jonah Dylan of The Memphis Commercial Appeal detail. “Staying at the f—ing Hyatt at 41 years old, you think I want to do that s—?” James said. “Being in Memphis on a random-ass Thursday. I’m not even the first guy to talk about this in the NBA. We’re all like, ‘You guys have to move.'”
Embiid ‘Pissed Off’ About Not Playing Wednesday, Calls Out Morey
After sitting out Wednesday’s win in Washington due to an illness, Sixers center Joel Embiid was back in action on Friday, registering 19 points, 13 rebounds, and seven assists across 34 minutes of action in a home victory over Minnesota.
In his post-game media session, Embiid was asked about the unusual sequence of events that took place on Wednesday, when he took to social media to express surprise about being ruled out for that night’s game vs. the Wizards. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that day that Embiid, who had been battling an illness on Monday against Miami, was still sick and missed Wednesday’s shootaround, prompting the team to rule him out. He responded by tweeting that they “won’t let me play basketball.”
“I was pissed off,” Embiid said after Friday’s game (Twitter video link via PHLY Sports; story via Adam Aaronson of PhillyVoice). “I wanted to play basketball. I wasn’t allowed to play basketball. So I think this is more of a question (for president of basketball operations) Daryl Morey and whoever makes the decisions.”
Embiid went on to explain that he was “pretty sick” in Miami, but was determined to play against one of the teams that was neck-and-neck with the 76ers in the playoff race. He added that he “felt a little bit better” in Washington but wasn’t able to sleep on Tuesday night until 5 or 6 a.m. and “couldn’t make it” to shootaround.
“Then after that, I found out online that I wasn’t playing that night,” he continued. “So yeah, that kind of caught me off guard and, yeah, that pissed me off. But then again, I guess they make the decisions, so it doesn’t matter what I think or not. I’ve just got to follow.”
As Aaronson observes, Embiid and the Sixers have long been cagey about providing updates about his various health ailments, with the star center preferring to keep the specifics of those issues as private as possible within the NBA’s injury reporting rules. While the 76ers have frequently been accused of a lack of transparency when it comes to Embiid’s health, they’re usually working with him in those instances — in this case, the team and the player were at odds over his status.
Embiid’s post-game comments put a damper on what was otherwise a very positive night for the Sixers, Aaronson notes, as the team held onto the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference with a solid victory over another playoff team. The 76ers and Embiid will want to be sure they’re on the same page as the club enters a difficult stretch of games that starts on Saturday vs. Detroit and is followed by matchups in San Antonio on Monday and Houston on Thursday.