When the Philadelphia 76ers selected Joel Embiid with the third overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, there were red flags that suggested it might not have been the wisest of decisions.
Embiid was going to miss his entire rookie season while he recovered from foot surgery, but teams around the league had concerns about his back as well, which Embiid had issues with during his one and only injury-shortened college basketball season.
Physically, Embiid may eventually recover and turn out to be a fine player. But his poor attitude during the rehabilitation process is what's most concerning at this point, and a recent report from Brian Geltzeiler of The Cauldron details just how bad things have been between Embiid and the Sixers.
The fact that Brown sent Embiid home from a West Coast road trip last season for being insubordinate to the team’s strength coach and training staff is well documented, but according to a source, the tipping point in the decision was Embiid physically threatening the strength coach on that road trip. According to sources, this followed a pattern of insubordination from Embiid during the rehabilitation of his initial foot injury that sidelined him for the entire 2014–15 season, where he would repeatedly refuse to answer questions from the training staff about his workouts and therapy sessions.
Embiid is expected to miss a second consecutive season, after doctors discovered the foot wasn't healing as they'd hoped and another surgery would be necessary. It was reported at the time that Embiid wasn't experiencing any pain in the foot, which may have been the reason behind his dunking and shooting jumpers while attending Summer League in Las Vegas, despite the fact that the team specifically asked him not to do so.
It's unclear if these activities and/or his failure to consistently wear the walking boot played a role in the second surgery being required, but it isn't very hard to jump to that conclusion.
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