The 76ers’ No. 1 overall pick from the 2016 NBA Draft finally has some good news. Ben Simmons, who the Sixers hope can pair with Joel Embiid to create a superstar tandem for the future, revealed on Tuesday night that his most recent bone scan on his injured right foot came back all clear with a “green check.”
.@bensimmons25 speaks, is cleared: "Green check. We live." pic.twitter.com/td44QfVvNT
— UNINTERRUPTED (@uninterrupted) April 12, 2017
As Simmons said, “we live,” and he’ll be back to basketball activities this summer. That is great news for the Sixers and Simmons, who have had to be more patient with his foot fracture than either probably wanted to. A scan in February revealed that his foot was not healing fully, and he had to have a minor procedure to inject bone marrow into the Jones’ fracture site to accelerate healing. The procedure seems to have worked as he is now cleared to get back out there and resume basketball activities.
With Simmons cleared and Joel Embiid having successful surgery to repair his torn meniscus, the hope in Philadelphia is that they can have their two young stars ready to play at the start of next season — or, in Embiid’s case at least early on in the season. With the emergence of Dario Saric as a Rookie of the Year candidate in Embiid’s absence, the Sixers could have the young core group of the future all together and healthy for the first time since The Process began to rebuild the franchise from the ground up.
