The Strange History of the Sixers’ Medical Team
Why the Sixers’ medical team and the franchise’s history of injury is quickly becoming one of the biggest mysteries in the sport
This piece was written as Ben Simmons suffered a dislocated knee-cap, yet another horrific injury that might end Philadelphia’s season prematurely. Simmons, one of the most durable players in the league, has seemingly fallen victim to the injury curse that plagues the Sixers.
THE DECISION SEEMED curious at best, horrific at worst. Once again, the Sixers’ medical team was at the forefront of it all.
Coming out of the All-Star break, with intense workouts and a historically competitive All-Star game, Ben Simmons had been pushing himself physically, trying to ramp up his conditioning for what he hoped would be a strong finish to his team’s season.
It is unclear where Simmons first tweaked his back — some reports cite an incident in practice, others claim the first occurrence might have been in the All-Star game — but Philly was now without their star point guard. Simmons missed Philadelphia’s first game post-All-Star break, with “back tightness” being the official reason he listed as out.
Then, the Sixers’ medical team made a bizarre decision, one that seemingly has become commonplace as the franchise has suffered through countless injuries in their process of turning a rebuilding team into a full-fledged contender.
Simmons was set to play against the league-leading Milwaukee Bucks, in a primetime matchup. But was he even healthy?
That question remained as reporters broke the news that the Sixers medical team planned to have Simmons return to the locker room whenever he was off the floor, for his ailing back to receive extra treatment. If Simmons was not healthy, why was he playing?
Simmons lasted for all of 4 minutes and 44 seconds before quickly limping his way into the locker room, where he lay on the floor, vomiting because of the pain in his back, and leaving Philadelphia’s season cast in doubt.
But this wasn’t a rare occurrence for Philly. No, this was just another chapter in a horror story of injuries and mismanagement that has plagued the franchise for years. Perhaps, by looking back on past tales of Sixers players suffering ailments, a clearer explanation may rise.
This is the story of the Sixers medical team, who have quickly become known for their mismanagement and incompetence, plaguing a franchise that is desperate to get back to title contention.
IT SEEMS FITTING to start this story with its most recognizable name: Joel Embiid, the crown jewel of “The Process,” who has gone from a skinny teenager to one of the most talented centers to ever play the game in just six years.
Embiid was drafted in 2014 as a player with endless potential — but an equally frightening medical record. When he got drafted #3 overall in 2014, he was on his couch, rehabbing after getting surgery on a broken navicular bone in his foot just six days prior.
He missed the entire 2014–2015 season, an unsurprising development, and a circumstance that allowed Sam Hinkie to continue stockpiling draft picks and assets.
Throughout this time, Embiid’s maturity came into question, as he seemingly spent his off-time tweeting at celebrities and drinking an unhealthy amount of Shirley Temples. The results showed at the end of the year when it was revealed that Embiid’s rehab was going far slower than anticipated, and suddenly his availability for the 2015–2016 season was in question.
Up to this point, the Sixers medical team couldn’t be blamed. They were dealing with an immature player who was going through the rigorous medical procedures of a ten-year NBA veteran.
But as soon as Embiid took the court in the 2016–2017 season, problems started to arise — and it didn’t shine favorably on the medical experts employed by the 76ers.
Embiid was dominant during his the first months of his NBA career, as his block totals were historic, his per-minute averages resembled the stats of Wilt Chamberlain, and his three-point shooting was at an above-average 36.7%.
Things came to a screeching halt as Embiid felt pain in his left knee. Initially ruling the pain as “swelling,” the Sixers medical team had Embiid lace up for a nationally-televised game against James Harden and the Houston Rockets, where the Sixers’ budding star scored 32 points — but had his left knee covered in a massive knee brace.
A few days later, it was revealed that Embiid had a torn meniscus and would need surgery — meaning he had just played on a torn meniscus that was only protected by a knee brace. Why were the Sixers not more cautious with their star center, and why did they not use an MRI to check for structural damage before letting Embiid play?
Embiid returned at peak form for 2017–2018, and he had the healthiest season of his career, with his only major injury coming on a freak accident. Markelle Fultz (more on him later), the rookie whose shoulder injuries ruined his rookie season, ran straight into Embiid while trying to run a hand-off, fracturing Embiid’s face and making him ruled out for the beginning of the Playoffs.
With such limited visibility, it’s not hard to see why Embiid struggled with efficiency during his first playoff run.
The 2018–2019 season started similarly, with Embiid putting up MVP-level numbers while being healthy to start his third official campaign. But around the All-Star break, like Ben Simmons from this season, rumors of knee pain started to come out of Sixers reporters.
Despite these reports, Embiid took the court for the 2019 All-Star game — and then proceeded to miss all but ten games after the All-Star break for load management related to knee tendinitis. The hope was that Embiid would be healthy by the start of the 2019 Playoffs — but he wasn’t.
In fact, Sixers fans only learned that Embiid would play in Game 1 of the first-round matchup against the Brooklyn Nets about an hour before tip-off. Even as their franchise player started the game for tip-off, it was clear Embiid wasn’t 100%. Reporters soon broke the news that the Sixers’ medical team had given the superstar center a heavy knee brace to aid his tendinitis — but Embiid ditched the brace because it rendered his mobility null.
The parallels between this situation and the torn meniscus in Embiid’s rookie season are clear. Again, why were the Sixers allowing their star player to take the court if he wasn’t healthy?
As Game 3 of that series proved, the Sixers didn’t need Embiid to win games against the Nets, yet he still appeared in four of the five games that series. By the time the Sixers faced off against the Raptors, Embiid appeared to be a shell of himself, struggling with both illness and injury, as the Sixers narrowly lost to the eventual champions.
This most recent season was the worst for Embiid since his rookie season, both in terms of production and health. He and the team were planning on taking a more aggressive plan in resting the star center this year, but those plans never came to fruition.
A dislocated finger and a sprained shoulder ruined were the two major culprits, and Philly’s horrific road record meant that Brett Brown couldn’t afford to rest his superstar big man very often.
Luckily, the hiatus gave Embiid time to get into better physical condition, but there is still one more pressing question to be asked. If the Sixers simply managed Embiid’s health properly, would they have to invest over $97 million into the aging and declining Al Horford?
Had Horford’s near $25 million salary been spent elsewhere, how much better could the 2019–2020 Sixers have been? The answer remains a mystery, just like the Sixers’ handling of Embiid’s health over the years.
“THAT’S A BAD looking free throw,” remarked Jeff Van Gundy of ESPN.
It was opening night for the Philadelphia 76ers, and despite winning only 28 games in the year prior, there was new hope in Philadelphia. With Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, and Markelle Fultz, the Sixers were supposed to be one of the best young teams in the league and a playoff contender.
There was just one problem: Markelle Fultz seemingly forgot how to shoot, leading to Van Gundy’s remark.
After his first and only season at Washington, Fultz was by far the most appealing prospect in the draft. He was a better scorer than Lonzo Ball, he took more efficient shots than Jayson Tatum, and he was a better all-around player than Josh Jackson, De’Aaron Fox, or Lauri Markennan.
It was Fultz who was supposed to complete “The Process” as the late-game shot-creator who could run pick-and-rolls, beat his man in isolation, and play off of Simmons and Embiid because of his shooting ability. Unfortunately, these visions never came to fruition.
After four games, Fultz was shut down indefinitely — leading to the most widespread analysis of an athlete’s psyche by a collective of sports fans and media in recent memory.
Did he have the “yips,” the sudden inability of an athlete to reproduce normal motor skills? When was his shoulder injured, or was Fultz even injured at all? Some even theorized the former #1 pick was involved in a motorcycle accident, which would explain why Fultz’s team would be so mysterious when discussing the injury.
Fultz returned to close the regular season, even becoming the youngest player to record a triple-double, but he never shot outside of the paint. Sadly, this was the peak of his Philadelphia tenure.
In the offseason, Drew Hanlen claimed he would “fix” Fultz’s jump-shot, with the Sixers guard piquing Philly fans’ interest when he made five jumpers and a three-pointer in the NBA Preseason.
But after ten games, everything crashed to a halt. Fultz’s jumper looked broken again — he double-pumped a free throw against the Miami Heat and hit the backboard on a three-pointer against the Nets — and he was relegated to the bench for J.J. Redick.
Fultz and Hanlen had a falling out, and this coincided with Fultz’s return to a broken state as his on-court performance suffered and the questions about his health returned.
As the Sixers traded for Jimmy Butler, Fultz saw his place on the team suddenly come into question, and he shut himself down indefinitely soon after. Two weeks into his hiatus, Fultz was diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome by an outside specialist (“outside” meaning outside of the Sixers’ medical team), with the syndrome supposedly affecting the nerves between the neck and shoulder.
Why did the Sixers’ medical team never diagnose anything when Fultz struggled with his injury? Why did it take two years for a diagnosis to somewhat answer one of the biggest mysteries in the sport?
Once again, there were larger consequences of this mismanagement. Needing cap space in the offseason and sensing discontent from Fultz’s team, new GM Elton Brand traded the disgruntled #1 pick to Orlando for Jonathan Simmons (who hardly played in the playoffs) and a few low-value draft picks.
Now, Philadelphia needs an athletic, dynamic back-up point guard, having tried to use both Josh Richardson and Alec Burks in this role because of the poor play from Raul Neto and Trey Burke — all while Fultz has revived his career in Orlando, suddenly looking healthy after just one offseason with a different medical team.
ON DRAFT NIGHT of 2018, Brett Brown, the long-time coach of the Sixers, had some extra work to do. In lieu of having an actual GM (Bryan Colangelo had recently been fired), Brown was set to make two draft choices for the team.
He didn’t do half-bad, considering the circumstances.
First, he traded down from the #10 slot to get Zhaire Smith, an athletic freak, and a valuable first-round pick from the Miami Heat. Next, he took Landry Shamet, a skilled guard out of Wichita State.
But only Shamet would thrive in his rookie season out of the two choices, as Smith’s story quickly took a turn for the worst.
The story begins in August, with Smith breaking his foot — a development that was all too familiar to Sixers fans, having seen Embiid, Simmons, and Fultz all suffer through injuries immediately after being drafted.
But in September, after eating a chicken dish at the team’s training facility, something didn’t feel right to Zhaire. His lips tingled, and there was some minor discomfort from eating the dish. At the time, he was unconcerned, however, only taking Benadryl to lower the discomfort.
Soon, everything took a turn for the worst.
Hives formed all over his body, an immediate and life-threatening allergic reaction; when Smith found his Epi-Pen, it was expired. His parents rushed to his apartment, called 911, and rushed him to the hospital. The hospital administered their own Epi-Pen, but they soon found a hole in his esophagus, another issue that needed to be responded to.
Soon, the Sixers’ first-round pick was bed-ridden, being fed by tubes and constantly being relieved by a morphine drip that made sleeping impossible.
By Thanksgiving, Smith was down to 160 pounds — far too light to lift weights, run, or even shoot a basketball. At Christmas, when he was finally able to shoot-around, he did so in a bathrobe or a hoodie, wanting to hide his frail state and the multiple tubes he was required to wear.
It was a long and arduous process for Smith to take the court for the Sixers: first, he had to regain muscle and weight, then he had to become familiar with the sport that was taken away from him, and finally, he had to play G-League games to get some conditioning.
Though he showed some signs of potential as the Sixers closed the regular season, he, like Fultz before him, wouldn’t see any playoff minutes.
This season was supposed to be different for Smith, as he was finally healthy. Smith was by far the best player on the Sixers’ Sumer League team, outperforming Matisse Thybulle and Norvel Pelle, among others.
Yet the former #16 overall pick has yet to take the court for the team, even when Thybulle started the season ice-cold from three and before Furkan Korkmaz caught fire as instant offense off of the bench.
Philly could use Smith’s skillset too: for all of the talk surrounding Thybulle’s defense, Philly needs one more elite on-ball defender to pair with Josh Richardson and Ben Simmons. Thybulle is a better off-ball defender, similar to Robert Covington, but Smith was touted for his perimeter defense in the draft, yet Philly refuses to play him.
Now, Smith won’t travel to Orlando because of a bone bruise, potentially giving him only one more season to prove his worth before his NBA future becomes a question. And one must wonder, where might the Sixers’ medical staff come into play in this peculiar situation that somehow seems commonplace for the 76ers.
THE SIXERS MEDICAL team has seen some turnover the years, but they are still plagued by the same mysterious decisions that paint an ugly picture.
During the offseason, for instance, they parted ways with Dr. Daniel Medina and Dr. David T. Martin. Medina, having formerly worked for FC Barcelona, was a highly-touted acquisition, yet little appears to have changed in his short tenure. Martin left after being the team’s director of research on performance, having originally been hired by Sam Hinkie.
Without a head of athlete care, the Sixers relied on their team physician assistant team physician to oversee the athlete care department — clearly not a good move considering the rash of injuries suffered by the team this season.
This season, for example, Josh Richardson cleared the team’s concussion protocol, yet still told reporters he was having headaches and needed to be in a dark room before using his cell phone.
Richardson also suffered multiple injuries to the same hamstring this season, limiting his availability. Was this repeated injury due to the medical team not allowing him to recover fully?
A pattern somewhat emerges looking back on these stories. The Sixers medical team, more often than not, appears to let players play through their injuries, only relying on braces, pads, and sleeves to protect their players.
That’s why Embiid played through a torn meniscus, Simmons started a game with a nerve impingement in his back, and Richardson played a game while still having headaches from a concussion.
Only Tobias Harris, Dario Saric, J.J. Redick, and Al Horford have escaped major injury over their tenure as key players in the Sixers’ rotation over the past four seasons.
Having watched the Sixers closely over the past three seasons, some other questions and theories can arise based on the Sixers’ apparent failure to help their players recuperate from injury:
- Jimmy Butler sprained his wrist early in January of 2019. In the subsequent months, he took under 3 three-pointers a game on 30.06% shooting after taking 3.63 three-pointers a game on 39.6% shooting in the three months before the injury. Could mismanagement of his injury explain why his shooting became a non-factor midway during the season, which cramped Philly’s spacing heading into the playoffs?
- Al Horford has taken overbearing criticism for his play this season, but he also joined the Sixers with hamstring and knee injuries. As a result, it was him, and not Embiid, who required more rest and load management this season, which might explain his poor performance.
- Jonah Bolden was seen as a player with immense potential as a mobile, skilled center who could eventually play back-up for Embiid. Did his injuries partially cause his removal from the rotation and subsequent waiving after showing promise in 2018–2019?
Taken at face value, it doesn’t appear that the Sizers’ medical team is completely at fault, but giving them the benefit of the doubt seems wrong as well.
Whatever the case may be, the Sixers medical team’s decisions over the past four seasons has only added drama to one of the league’s most exciting yet confusing team.
If Philadelphia eventually wins a title with Embiid and Simmons, then the long list of injuries will only become a footnote in “The Process,” along with the Bryan Colangelo Twitter scandal, Hinkie’s firing, and this year’s disastrous free agency. If not, perhaps these mysterious injuries will come back to haunt Philadelphia for years to come.
Related:
Sources:
“Brett Brown says Ben Simmons was vomiting because of pain from back injury” by NBC Sports
“The Wild Story of Zhaire Smith’s Allergic Reaction That Almost Killed Him” by GQ
“The injury status of Josh Richardson is a little hazy,” by SB Nation
“Sixers Team Physicians” on NBA.com
“Sixers move on from 2 member of medical staff, source says” by NBC Sports
