Joel Embiid: NBA Prospect Could Miss Entire Season With Foot Injury

Joel Embiid is considered one of the best big men to enter the NBA draft in years, but he may have to wait quite a while to make his debut in the league.

The 7-foot center from Kansas suffered a foot injury that caused him to fall to No. 3, where he was taken by the Philadelphia 76ers. But now reports have emerged that the recovery once expected to take about four months could take much longer, and might even leave Embiid out for the entire 2014-15 season.

When the 7-foot center was available at three, the Sixers pounced, even though he could miss up to a full season because of a broken foot.

If the grim recovery prediction is true, it would be the latest bit of bad news for a snakebitten franchise. The 76ers lost All-Star center Andrew Bynum to a knee injury in the 2012-13 season before could even suit up. The team’s top pick last season, Nerlens Noel, also missed the entire season with an ACL tear.

But the foot injury could be a good thing for the Philadelphia 76ers, who likely would not have been able to draft Joel Embiid if he were healthy. After a strong workout that garnered him comparisons to Hakeem Olajuwon, Embiid saw his draft stock soar. Many believed the Cleveland Cavaliers would snatch him with the No. 1 pick.

“Joel Embiid is going to be the first pick of the 2014 draft,” Grantland’s Bill Simmons wrote before the draft lottery was held. “Don’t let anyone tell you differently… Unless Embiid’s pre-draft MRI reveals a career-threatening back issue (doubtful), NOBODY is passing on a franchise center.”

But when Embiid did get injured, it presented Philadelphia the opportunity that general manager Sam Hinkie had been waiting for.

“I sniffed opportunity,” Hinkie said on Friday. “The moment he got hurt, we thought we might get him. We might be just the organization with just the set of owners, and we might be the one to do it.”

Hinkie was salivating at the thought of Noel and Embiid sharing the frontcourt, and coach Brett Brown is already thinking up schemes to share the two talented big men.

“I do think that Joel and Nerlens can co-exist,” Brown said. “I think I can find a way to play those two guys together. It’s a really good problem to have.”

Doctors say there is still no definitive word how long Joel Embiid could be out with the foot injury.