After a report this weekend from the Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Keith Pompey said Joel Embiid had skipped training sessions and had swollen to close to 300 pounds, Embiid denied the excessive weight gain while his Sixers were in the Nation’s Capital to play the Wizards in a Martin Luther King Day matinee today.
“I don’t weigh that,” Embiid told CSN Philly while in Washington DC.
A team source backed up the rookie center out of Kansas , saying he had never weighed more than 275 pounds since being selected with the No. 3 pick in the heralded 2014 NBA Draft.
While Embiid was sent home from a recent West Coast road trip, the team didn’t confirm or deny the Inquirer’s report the premature dismissal from the team had come about because he had gotten into it with Philadelphia’s training staff.
Coach Brett Brown said as recently as Jan. 6 that Embiid “looked good. He did all the things he needed to do physically, being with the trainer and conditioning.”
Obviously there’s a disconnect between Pompey’s report for the Inquirer and what the Sixers want us to believe. The fact the Sixers didn’t deny Embiid had been sent home from their West Coast road trip because of a disagreement between Embiid and a trainer means it probably did happen.
Whether or not his gripe with Philly’s training staff has anything to do with the Pompey’s report that he’s weighing close to 300 pounds, we’ll leave up to readers, but we’re guessing there’s a connection.
The former Kansas center weighed 250 pounds during his freshman year with the Jayhawks, but since a stress fracture knocked him out of the running for the No. 1 spot in the 2014 Draft and also means he probably won’t see the court this year, it makes sense he’d stand to gain some weight.
Then again, even limited to anti-gravity training devices and other exercises that don’t stress his foot, he shouldn’t be 300 pounds.
UPDATE: Here’s Embiid working out today in DC before the Sixers-Wizards game. He doesn’t look like Celtics-era Shaq, so we’re guessing a pissed off trainer probably leaked the 300 figure:
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What do you think?
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