#GOD pic.twitter.com/UdeNyBj3Lm
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) August 18, 2015
After weeks of all too awkward silence, Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie held a rather extensive conference call yesterday to finally update the public on Joel Embiid and his (twice now) surgically repaired foot.
In quite a detailed discussion, Hinkie went through the entire timeline of first discovering the new setback, the decision process for how to proceed from there, Joel's involvement in the decision, the surgery itself, and ultimately his recovery. Embiid had succesful surgery on Tueday in New York City and is expected to miss the entire 2015-2016 season.
Hinkie said that Embiid was symptom free through the entire process leading up to his second surgery, and that the new "injury" was discovered on a routine CT scan. He refuted reports that Embiid re-broke his navicular bone, instead implying that the healing process of the fracture site had slowed or stopped entirely. After seeking opinions from 12 experts, it was agreed upon between the Sixers and Embiid that surgery was the right course. At that point, the now infamous press release with the "7-10 day" timeline was released.
After that press release though, Embiid set out on his own reconnaissance mission according to Embiid, seeking advice from various players about different surgeons and surgeries. Hinkie seemed so pleased with Embiid's active role in the process that he claimed to simply not care about meeting the timeline they laid out. Once a bone graft surgery (which apparently involved harvesting bone marrow from Embiid's hip) was decided on, a team of multiple surgeons was assembled to perform the procedure, and scheduling that team added to the delay. The surgery finally happened on Tuesday and Hinkie said the surgeons were "mildly pleasantly surprised by what they found" once inside Joel's foot.
While he never explicitly said what might have caused this setback, Hinkie did say it had nothing to do with Embiid's behavior. Much was made about Embiid not being in a walking boot in the days and weeks after the re-injury was revealed, but that was apparently signed off on by Embiid's doctors. As for Embiid's dedication to the rehab process, Hinkie said he's "been please with Joel throughout this [process].” He also insisted no one believes that Embiid's on court activity (dunking between his legs, shooting 3s, etc) had anything to do with this. The question still remains though, if it wasn't that stuff then what was it that caused the slow healing? How do they ensure it doesn't happen again?
Asked if the Sixers would modify Embiid's rehab program this time around, Hinkie said they are always look for ways to improve what they do, but that also his rehab this year will be overseen by a completely new set of people, as the Sixers recently hired both David Martin, their new Director of Sorts Science, and Todd Wright, their new head of Strength and Conditioning. Embiid is clearly going to have a world class rehab program at his disposal.
One other interesting point that Hinkie made in this call was that Embiid's first surgery was not overseen by the Sixers, a fact many perhaps overlook. "Joel showed up in Philly with a cast on" was how Hinkie put it, saying this time around they would control the process "from soup to nuts." That's not to imply that this was screwed up by the last guy, but one would have to agree that the Sixers having control over the entire process is a good thing.
All in all, the news Hinkie delivered from this call is about as good as it gets. The surgery went well, everyone is happy with the results, the Sixers have control over the entire process, they have a whole new cutting edge health and fitness team on staff … not sure what else you could ask for.
Also, not that this conference call undoes some of the bad PR the Sixers deservedly got in the last few weeks, but I have to say that this was way more in depth than a typical "Joel had surgery on Tuesday, everything went fine." When Hinkie does talk, it's usually worth a listen. Hopefully he learned a lesson through all of this too that if he is going to be so shy about talking to the press, when he does speak, any updates or timelines he gives had better be infallible.
A couple other quick hits from the wide ranging conference call:
- Hinkie was unsure (or just didn't want to comment) or where Tony Wroten is in his rehab, but said he has been "hearing good things." I would have to agree.
- When asked if anything else was going on with the team, Hinkie said they "are heavily engaged in trade conversations" and free agency talk, but that this is also SOP for them in the off season and there is nothing to report.
- A bunch of players came back to town this week and the Sixers practice gym at PCOM is apparently quite active.
