Fans and the NBA community on social media aren’t the only ones trying to digest the surprising news of Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid’s fractured orbital bone and concussion. Embiid’s own teammates are still trying to gather information and understand what’s to come for their two-way superstar.
On a new episode of Inside The Green Room, Sixers wing Danny Green gave an account of the symptoms Embiid exhibited in the aftermath of getting elbowed in the face by Raptors forward Pascal Siakam.
Green explained to co-host and friend, Harrison Sanford:
We saw him on the plane after the game, he was holding his head. It seemed pretty severe. We didn’t know. There was no stitches, I saw a little scratch. But when it happened, he kind of wanted to go back in the game. We’re like, ‘Joel, you can’t go back in the game. We subbed you out and challenged the replay.’ Mind you, we probably should’ve pulled the plug a little earlier. But I mean, it is what it is. We were waiting for Nick to throw his subs in first. It is what it is, like I said. He came out, he seemed like the adrenaline, he still wanted to play. But once I think it set in and after the game, you could see in the locker room he was holding his head a lot. He was kind of a little leery, his body seemed a little weary. On the plane, he was under the covers. Usually they play cards. On the bus, he kind of just laid down, covered his face. I think the lights were getting to him. But yeah, it seemed pretty severe. We were just hoping for the best, we didn’t know what was going to happen. We just got the news, we heard just like everyone else — on the internet.
It’s necessary to note that Green reiterated a few times that he didn’t know the severity or the details of the injury. While negligible in the big picture of what he’s saying, Green’s uncertainty underlies an important point.
Fans expect and assume teams have tons of information to hand out when these types of injuries happen. The truth is that the situation is often fluid. Recovery isn’t linear, and everyone — from Embiid, himself, to people on Twitter starving for information — is at the mercy of how the big man’s head improves on a day-to-day basis.
For now, it certainly seems like Embiid exhibited some common symptoms of a concussion. The most important question is whether the Sixers are more concerned about the fractured orbital bone or the concussion. If it’s the concussion, I suspect we’ll see Embiid much sooner than the public sentiment indicates. If it’s the orbital bone, the Sixers may not be too far from Cancun.
All we can say for certain is the one thing no one wants to hear — only time will tell which is the bigger deal to the Sixers.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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