Since seemingly everything surrounding the Sixers right now is health-related, Philly Sports Talk on Thursday welcomed Dr. Mark Schwartz, co-medical director for Virtua sports medicine.
Schwartz, who does not treat Joel Embiid or Ben Simmons, shared his knowledge and thoughts on the Sixers' injured rookies.
(His thoughts on Simmons can be found here.)
Schwartz reviewed the tape of the Sixers' game against the Blazers back on Jan. 20, when Embiid was injured. Embiid suffered two falls in that game, coming out for good after the second.
Embiid hyperextended his left knee on the first fall, and the diagnosis on Embiid's knee was a bone bruise. But, as Schwartz says, a hyperextension typically does not result in a bone bruise.
"Hyperextensions can be a ligament tear, possible meniscal tear, but usually you wouldn't see too much of a bone bruise, per se," Schwartz told Michael Barkann.
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"It's possible, but I believe there was a second injury."
Ah, the second injury, the meniscal tear the Sixers revealed only last week.
Schwartz went on to describe Embiid's second spill against the Blazers, which can be seen in the video above, as "significant."
"You can get a bone bruise from that, one traumatic event," Schwartz said. "Or sometimes it can be secondary to an overuse injury, repetitive jumping, landing on the knee. I would say that second injury was a significant fall.
"Bone bruises usually occur by contact, a hard fall, the femur being impeded down onto the tibia, knee-to-knee contact, a fall on the floor.
"Meniscal tears are usually due to twisting type of injuries.
"Twenty-five years ago before we had MRIs, you couldn't really make this diagnosis radiographically. Now these bone bruises are able to be seen on an MRI and you can see the extent of the injury."
Sixers fans hold their breath every time Embiid dives for a loose ball or hits the ground trying to finish in traffic. It seems like this will be a career-long thing for him because it's just his style of play. The reckless abandon Embiid plays with is a primary factor in his success at both ends of the floor.
Can Embiid have a decade-long NBA career playing like this?
"Well, the problem, the NBA has done a study and the taller the player, the higher the injury rate and the shorter the career," Schwartz said.
"So players over 7-2 certainly have the highest rate of injury in the lower extremities. And then you look at players 6-7 and taller, much different, higher injury rate in the lower extremities than shorter players."
