76ers unsure if dunk caused soreness in Embiid's foot

Joel Embiid is in a walking boot and seeing his doctor in Los Angeles Tuesday because he experiencing soreness in his surgically repair foot. His checkup was previously planned coach Brett Brown said, not scheduled after the now-famous between-the-legs dunk the rookie performed pregame last Friday night.

And the Sixers don't think the dunk caused the soreness.

"I don't believe so," Brown said. "It is hard to say yes or no. We do admit that we have to tame him, calm him down because he just wants to be on the court. He is dying to play basketball.

"There was some soreness. [The walking boot] is far more a precautionary thing. He is currently in Los Angeles. [The appointment] was always scheduled. This is not a reaction to a ground-swell of interest, which I understand, but there has been some soreness."

Embiid has not participated in a basketball game since March 1, 2014, when he scored 13 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in a Kansas loss to Oklahoma State.

The freshman phenom missed the Big 12 and NCAA tournament because of a back injury.

Then came foot surgery in June. Doctors inserted two screws into Embiid's navicular bone in his right foot. Still, the Sixers selected the 7-footer at No. 3 overall in the draft. They estimated Embiid's recovery time following surgery at five to eight months.

Nine months have passed and for the first time in several months the 7-footer is in a walking boot.

"People should not overreact," Brown said. "I get it. But I think when you speak to doctors who deal with this all the time they say this is quite normal. It is part of the recovery that you will experience some soreness from time to time.

"I think when you see the dunk and then a walking boot, people connect the dots and it is fair. He is in a boot, there is soreness, but it is so minor, and it is so precautionary."

Embiid regularly goes through a pregame routine that has him shooting various jumpers after catching the ball low, mid and high post from a member of the coaching staff. His movements are fluid when he goes through the routine.

The dunk, however, was his improvisation.

Twenty-four hours after the video of the dunk went viral, Embiid did not go through his pregame workout. He attended the Sixers-Hawks game and was seen pregame signing autographs but not wearing a boot.

"It was really that night when he left that we decided to put him in the boot," Brown said.

As an organization, the Sixers have been down this road three consecutive seasons. Andrew Bynum never played a game in the 2012-13 season because of two bad knees. Nerlens Noel sat all last year following surgery on his torn ACL. And now Embiid is out, likely for the full 82 games this season.

Noel can relate to Embiid desperately wanting to get back on the court. He felt the same way this time last year.

"He was asking the coaches to stay on the court longer and get more shots up," Noel said of Embiid in the locker room the other day. "That is just his aggression towards wanting to get back."

It was March 9, 2014 when Noel tweeted 4-4-14. The Sixers would be in playing the Celtics at TD Garden that night. Noel looked healthy and grew up in Boston. People connected those dots and came to the conclusion 4-4-14 was the date of his NBA debut.

That date came and went, and Noel was still sidelined. He likes to joke, even a year later, that his tweet was marking the release date of the latest Captain America movie.

Last year Noel was an antsy 19-year-old kid stirring the pot with a cryptic tweet.

Embiid's dunk was the actions of a 20-year-old being even bolder in expressing his desire to play basketball.

"It was definitely impressive," Noel said of teammate's dunk. "He's able to do things right now, but you want to make sure you can do everything. Joel still has a little ways to go, but he has come such a long ways. He needs to stay positive and confident."