I’m an optimistic moron. I was so in the wrong. A classic fool.

Fool

On January 30th, just after Joel Embiid played his last game of the season to date, I wrote a post entitled “When Do We Get Concerned About Joel Embiid?” My answer: Not now. What a dingus. Here’s a selection:

While he’s going to miss some time, Embiid’s knee contusion is unlikely a big issue…Embiid played in the Houston game with an extra compression layer over his left knee, but seemed to play comfortably and appeared unaffected. But it brings us to a question many of us don’t want to face: When do we get worried?

The Sixers have, over and over again, failed to be transparent with injuries, to no gain of their own. When Embiid re-injured his foot, they danced around the re-injury, claiming it was a lack of healing. Ben Simmons’ case was very high-profile and handled clearly, but we still have zero context for any kind of timeline or recovery period. Jerryd Bayless is probably the strangest case. He was plagued by “wrist soreness” starting in camp, ended up sitting for the start of the season before playing in a game or two, and then found his way back into a suit on the bench. In the end, he had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left wrist.

Still, STILL, I said this:

I don’t think there’s anything the Sixers are hiding here. Embiid has a sore knee…I don’t think his knee is anything to be worried about, but when JoJo starts and then keeps missing games due to something other than rest, the Sixers need to jump in front of it and be completely, totally, wholly open. They owe the fans that.

Today, after Bryan Colangelo more or less admitted to being misleading about Embiid’s injury— total transparency:

Feel free to take a few minutes to point and laugh about how foolish I was. In the face of all evidence – anecdotal and historical – I wrongly assumed the Sixers’ problems with transparency and a possibly bumbling medical staff wouldn’t be an issue. Looking back, I can’t even comprehend how unbelievably naive I was. Never again.