The Philadelphia 76ers cannot catch a break.
They got Tyrese Maxey back, but their most important and best player could be looking at yet another long layoff.
According to a report by Shams Charania of The Athletic, Joel Embiid has been diagnosed with a displaced meniscus flap in his left knee, and he’s considering surgery (via NBA Central).
Joel Embiid has been diagnosed with a displaced meniscus flap in his left knee, and he is considering surgery, per @ShamsCharania
“Embiid’s chances of repeating as MVP are likely over.”
(Via https://t.co/xfe7mJliCH) pic.twitter.com/EWyAO9pGt5
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) February 3, 2024
This pretty much puts an end to his chances to win back-to-back MVP awards, as he can only miss three more games before losing his eligibility for the award.
The league established this new policy to prevent Sars from sitting out games despite being healthy, meaning he won’t be eligible for an All-NBA team either.
Notably, Embiid had missed games despite being healthy, infamously sitting out vs. the Denver Nuggets at Mile High, a place he hasn’t played in since 2019.
Even so, he’s currently leading the league in points per game and was going through one of the most notorious scoring runs in NBA history, so this is still a major hit for himself, his team, and the l league as a whole.
This rule has been controversial for players who want to be eligible for full-season awards despite sometimes being part-time players, but it’s actually more fair to those who are available more often than not.
Still, it seemed like Embiid played through injury because of this rule and ended up aggravating it, so they might look to revisit it in the offseason to prevent these kinds of things from happening again in the future.
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