Sixers

UPDATE: Markelle Fultz Had His Shoulder Drained and, Yep, It’s Worse Than We Thought

By Kyle Scott

Published: Oct 24th, 2017 · 4:09 PM EDT

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There’s an update to this story here. The original is after the jump.

Woj Bomb:

Philadelphia 76ers guard Markelle Fultz, the top overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft, had fluid drained from his right shoulder and is planning to visit a specialist soon, his agent told ESPN on Tuesday.

“Markelle had a shoulder injury and fluid drained out of the back of his shoulder,” agent Raymond Brothers told ESPN. “He literally cannot raise up his arms to shoot the basketball. He decided to try and fight through the pain to help the team. He has a great attitude. We are committed to finding a solution to get Markelle back to 100 percent.”

It’s unclear whether Fultz will miss any games.

We’ll have more soon.

UPDATE: So the shooting woes obviously have quite a bit to do with his injury, which, I guess is both good and bad. Good that the number one overall pick didn’t forget how to shoot, bad that here we go again with injuries!

A red flag should go up whenever an agent goes on the record. That usually signifies discrepancy and disagreement. There should also be a modicum of skepticism, since we’ve only heard one side. The Sixers haven’t said anything about this yet. Fultz’s agent talked to Woj on the record before the Sixers could announce this. Fultz also retweeted the story:

Why the rush to put this out there and not wait for the team to do it? Is it possible Fultz and his folks are trying to spin his struggles, a bit, and exaggerate the injury issue? Maybe. But there seems to be a legitimate injury, and if that’s the case, is it on the team for letting Fultz out there, or Fultz for playing through pain? The latter is more understandable– a rookie wanting to be out there. Either way, I think it’s time we hear from Bryan Colangelo.