NBA Draft 2014: Joel Embiid has stress fracture in right foot, will have surgery

Wojbombs . . . .

Joel Embiid has suffered stress fracture in right foot and slated for surgery on Friday, agent Arn Tellem says.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) June 19, 2014

The stress fracture is in the navicular bone in Embiid's right foot.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) June 19, 2014

Says Tellem, "Joel will be unable to participate in any additional workouts, and will not attend the draft in New York."

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) June 19, 2014

So, Joel Embiid is going to have surgery to repair a stress fracture in his navicular bone. This sounds EXACTLY like what happened to Curtis Borchardt years ago. And years ago I yelled to the message board I was on back then to not draft him because of a risk of avascular necrosis. That's exactly what happened to Curtis, and his NBA career never happened.

If Embiid goes in a time machine, gets the same surgery performed, and does not recover properly, then his fate could be the same. It may not be. Things have changed since then. But one thing that has not changed is human anatomy. If you make your life out of a job running and jumping a foot injury is going to be a risk. A bigger risk if you are a bigger guy (that's physics).

The Navicular is a boat shaped bone in the foot that articulates with the talus, the three cuneiforms, and the cuboid. It doesn't take the first shock impact, but it takes the secondary shocks and spreads it around. One bad thing about the Nav is the blood flow. Hence, the HUGE risk post injury for avascular necrosis. That's what you want to avoid.

If Embiid doesn't get the time to heal, and doesn't rush back, he could have an NBA career. If not, it could be the worst case scenario. Big men with big injuries are big risks. Just ask Greg Oden, Andrew Bynum, Andrew Bogut, and everyone all the way back to Sam Bowie.