It appears potential No. 1 pick Joel Embiid has hit a stumbling block as the draft approaches:
ESPN has confirmed Joel Embiid has suffered right foot injury. Now the question becomes whether it's broken: http://t.co/K6lP8x86MT
NBA Countdown analyst Bill Simmons confirmed the report:
Confirming Jeff Goodman's report: Embiid has a foot injury (origin unclear), getting it evaluated today. Won't work out for any more teams.
Goodman believes that the injury will certainly push the Kansas center out of the top spot in the draft:
My next mock will now have Jabari Parker going No. 1 overall to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
While it remains to be seen how serious the injury actually is, undoubtedly this is a huge setback for Embiid. Given his back problems, he already needed to prove to teams he was healthy enough to be worthy of the No. 1 overall pick. This is certainly not a good start.
UPDATE: According to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, Embiid his a stress fracture in his right foot and will require surgery on Friday:
Joel Embiid has suffered stress fracture in right foot and slated for surgery on Friday, agent Arn Tellem says.
The stress fracture is in the navicular bone in Embiid's right foot.
This will spell the end of Embiid's participation in any pre-draft festivities, as well:
Says Tellem, "Joel will be unable to participate in any additional workouts, and will not attend the draft in New York."
This situation obviously has huge ramifications for the draft, and has left a lot of teams scrambling:
Hard to exaggerate how much this Embiid news is throwing teams at the top of the draft for a loop. Week away, no one knows what to do.
We'll update with more details as they develop.
[via Twitter]
