With just a week to go before the NBA draft, the best centre prospect, since maybe Greg Oden, is starting to show similar concerns as those that stopped the Portland Trailblazers big man from becoming an NBA star. Kansas Centre Joel Embiid has a fractured foot and will need to go under the knife.
“Joel Embiid has suffered a stress fracture in his right foot and will have surgery Friday,” Embiid’s agent Arn Tellem said.
“Joel will be unable to participate in any additional workouts and will not attend the draft in New York,” Tellem said.
The fracture is in the navicular bone, which is on top of the foot above the arch. This is a similar surgery to one had by Yao Ming, Bill Walton, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, where screws are placed into the bone in order to secure it. The expected recovery time is four to six months which puts him out of all summer league ball, and could delay the start of Embiid’s NBA career.
Embiid’s Previous Injury Concerns
Embiid was limited to just 28 games this season due to injuries. The flare up of a stress fracture in his lower back kept him out of the Big 12 tournament and the NCAA tournament and the injury is the biggest question mark on his draft status going forward. The talent he showed when healthy has the seven-foot tall center considered a prototypical big man going forward.
Just a freshman, Joel Embiid was one of the college game’s top big men, averaging 11.2 points and team bests with 8.1 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game. The rebound average and 72 total blocks set school records for freshmen at Kansas.
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