Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Even with new mask, Embiid won’t return in the blink of an eye
As long as there will be injured centers and NBA playoff games, there will be the hope for the next reprise of Willis Reed’s famous 1970 unscheduled walk. Joel Embiid did not make one Saturday. The question, as the Sixers and Heat roll through a first-round playoff series, is whether he can make an impromptu return at all.
Unlike Reed, who famously fought through a thigh injury to start Game 7 of the finals, and unlike other players who can battle through pulled muscles and surgically repaired joints, Embiid has missed the last nine games with a fractured left orbital.
Can the Sixers really expect him to risk eye damage?
“It would be reckless for me to even offer an opinion,” Brett Brown said, before Game 1. “I don’t know. What I do know is the creativity that we have gone through to develop his mask, and I’m sure there is a part of it that Joel wants that thing to look good, which I understand, and shaping it to his face and understanding the peripheral vision.”
Embiid has been wearing a mask for the past week as he recovers from surgery to repair the bone, cracked in a March 28 on-court collision with Markelle Fultz. He wore it Saturday, during early warmups, and he wore it Friday when he engaged in non-contact, individual workouts in Camden.
The Sixers want to be certain that when Embiid does return, he will be able to see clearly, with or without the mask.
“Do you not see a part of the gym that you used to see?” Brown said. “They will manage that and craft that. But any other guess at what it might mean future-wise or health-wise, I can’t comment.”
As an injured player, Embiid was not obligated to meet the press Saturday. The Sixers have yet to share a timetable for Embiid’s return. *** Ben Simmons had several favorite NBA players when he was growing up in Australia.
He had one whose signature basketball shoes he always made certain to collect: Dwyane Wade.
“Growing up, every single game, I came out in Converse,” Simmons was saying before he would encounter Wade and the Heat. “I always looked at him as one of those guys that I tried to mold my game after.”
That did not, however, mean the Sixers’ 21-year-old rookie was intimidated by his 36-year-old hero.
“No one individual is going to beat us tonight,” Simmons said. “It is going to be a team game.”
While Simmons has expressed similar respect for Magic Johnson, Julius Erving, Allen Iverson and other prior-generation NBA greats, there was a deeper reason for him to have trafficked in Wade’s preferred sporting goods.
“I mean, my dad was sponsored by Converse when he was playing pro,” Simmons said, smiling. “So I am pretty sure that was it.”
Dave Simmons, Ben’s New York-raised father, played professionally in Europe.
*** Simmons has company in the Dwyane Wade fan club.
“Dwyane Wade?” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We don’t have enough time for me to talk about him. I love that dude and the moments that he tends to capture at this time of year.”
*** Derrick Jones Jr., the 2015 Daily Times Boys Basketball Player of the Year from Archbishop Carroll, is traveling with the Heat during the postseason. On a two-way contract, the forward is ineligible to play in the playoffs. But that was him out there early at the Wells Fargo Center, working on moves and free throws. And that was him enjoying, of course, a cheesesteak in the locker room before the game.
“It’s always great to be back home, and to be able to see my family,” Jones said, “and be able to play the game that I love.”
Jones spent most of the season playing in the G-League, where he averaged 17.4 points with Northern Arizona and Sioux Falls (S.D.).
Previously, he had played 38 NBA games over two seasons with Phoenix. He signed the two-way with Miami last December. He played in 14 games (eight starts) for the Heat this year, averaging 3.7 points and 2.4 rebounds in 15.1 minutes.
“I think my season went well,” Jones said. “I maxed out the opportunities I got and I am happy where I am at right now.”
Jones, 21, was in the 2017 dunk contest at NBA weekend, an opportunity that likely would not surprise anyone to have seen him at Carroll … or to his fans in the Wells Fargo Center Saturday. “Just my family,” he said. The Chester-born Jones did not grow up as a Sixers fan.
“No,” he said. “I was a Chicago Bulls fan. Michael Jordan, of course. But the Sixers are doing well now.”
Jones enjoyed his cheesesteak, with mayo. And he enjoyed the NBA postseason experience, with all of its spice. Next? “They just want me to go throughout the summer and work on my game,” Jones said, “and get everything I can out of the summer.”