The latest chapter in the never-ending saga that is Markelle Fultz’s professional basketball career started on Tuesday morning. A report indicated that the former No. 1 overall pick will see a specialist for his shoulder next week at the discretion of his attorney, and until then, Fultz will not play or practice.
If it seemed like this story came out of left field, well, it kind of did. Outside of a deleted tweet from Fultz’s now-former trainer, there was never any indication that his shoulder was causing him any issues this season. He was struggling during his sophomore campaign, but at no point did the Sixers say his shoulder problems were acting up again.
In fact, we learned from Sixers general manager Elton Brand and head coach Brett Brown that they were just as surprised as everyone else. The pair met with the media on Tuesday afternoon, and as it turns out, they found about Fultz’s upcoming absence this morning.
Markelle Fultz is scheduled to see a shoulder specialist in NY on Monday. This was brought to both Elton Brand’s & Brett Brown’s attention by Markelle‘s agent this morning. He will not practice or play in a game until he does that, but Brown expects him to be around the team.
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) November 20, 2018
Both Brand and Brown made it clear that, as far as they were aware, everything surrounding Fultz’s shoulder led them to believe he was fine, with Brown going as far as to say there were no red flags prior to this point.
Elton Brand said there has been no indication that there has been anything medically wrong with Markelle Fultz’ shoulder that would keep him off the court, either leading up to or during the season.
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) November 20, 2018
Asked Brett Brown about if Markelle Fultz had been communicating w/ him throughout the season about anything specific with his shoulder.
"Not really. It's kind of the first real sort of red flag."
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) November 20, 2018
These sorts of media availabilities are ostensibly done to give more insight into a situation, but all this one did is make things more confusing. The fact that Fultz’s general manager and head coach were this caught off guard is kind of baffling, especially because you’d think there would have been some communication between his attorney and the team before this happened. Then again, everything that has happened involving Fultz’s shoulder has been eyebrow-raising, so perhaps this is just par for the course.
