Even when the news is expected, the daily Joel Embiid saga has been tiring for everyone involved.
The Sixers returned to practice Friday in preparation for their ABC showcase against the Golden State Warriors.
Guerschon Yabusele spoke to reporters for the first time since suffering injuries to both eyes on Feb. 22 against the Bulls.
“I have no clue what was the injury or what was going on. In my mind, when I recall it, I feel like his finger was so far into my eyes, he could touch my brain kind of,” he said. “The feeling was like, ‘Oh my God,’ like I was trying to open [my eyes], I just couldn’t, and it was weird and really painful.”
He was officially diagnosed with a corneal abrasion in his right eye while they also feared swelling in his left.
The good news is after missing one game against the Knicks, Yabu is already off the injury report for their matchup against the Warriors.
He doesn’t want to wear protective goggles, but will have to try them out before the game to see if he has to wear them.
“I really don’t want to have goggles. I don’t think it’s going be a really good look,” he said, “it (would) bother me a little bit. So we will definitely try tomorrow at shootaround to see how I feel, but I don’t think that I have to.”
The rest of the report is as expected, the only Sixers ruled out are Kyle Lowry, Jared McCain, Eric Gordon and of course, Joel Embiid, who the team officially ruled out for the rest of the season.
No Yabu on the injury report for tomorrow https://t.co/SAEo0qdKmn pic.twitter.com/1L7F4AO07D
— Josh Grieb (@JGrieb10) February 28, 2025
Even when the team finally announced that Embiid was done for the season, they did it in parts.
First, they announced that he did not participate in Friday’s practice. About an hour later or so, he was ruled out for the Warriors game. Then a couple hours later they finally put out the release that he was done for the season.
Why did we have to drag this out for a week https://t.co/RQn7E3rA3B
— Subscribe to the You Know Ball Patreon (@TrillBroDude) February 28, 2025
It’s easy to say the daily saga has worn on everyone when head coach Nick Nurse has seemed fed up with the situation since the beginning of the season. While he could have done better as the public face of the team, answering this same question for six months would wear on anybody.
Part of this is definitely due to the fact that Embiid prefers information around his health to be murky to the public. Jake Fischer reported that Lisa Salter’s report that another surgery was on the table even took Sixers’ staffers by surprise.
It would be much easier to excuse that though if Embiid was the only player the Sixers were vague about. Despite being outside of the top-10 seeds of the East for the entire season, the team still hasn’t officially announced Eric Gordon is done for the year after undergoing wrist surgery.
They’ve only said he is out and will be re-evaluated in three months. So not to worry, EG will be back to save the day in the Eastern Conference Finals.
An offseason of further updates and investigating different types of surgeries is still to come, but at least everybody can finally take a month’s long break from all of this.