(Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Why can’t I go one Sixers season without watching the rookie they select have a normal rookie season? He wasn’t even the only rookie this year to suffer an injury. Fellow rookie, Landry Shemet suffered a severe high ankle sprain during the summer league.
Once is a chance, twice is a coincidence and three times is a pattern. A pattern is what it has certainly become for Sixers rookies to get bitten by the injury bug in their first season. The Sixers drafted Nerlens Noel coming off his Acl tear and never played. Embiid sat out his first two seasons with injuries to his foot. Jahlil Okafor tore his meniscus a little over halfway through his rookie season. Ben Simmons sat out his entire rookie year and Markelle Fultz’s rookie season has been well documented. We can now add Zhaire Smith and his Jones fracture to the list.
At this point, I really believe Sam Hinkie might have sold his soul. I’m just sitting here wondering what deal with the devil he had to cut to implement his tanking strategy. At this point, it has become way more than a coincidence. So, one has to wonder, what supernatural phenomena is at play here? Why can’t I go one Sixers season without watching the rookie they select have a normal rookie season? He wasn’t even the only rookie this year to suffer an injury. Fellow rookie, Landry Shemet suffered a severe high ankle sprain during the summer league.
We are going on year six of these injuries occurring to Sixer’s rookies. One can only hope that whatever deal with the devil Hinkie made was a six year one. I don’t want my kids to have to deal with the Sixers rookie curse one day. It’s a real shame, because Zhaire Smith was going to have a nice little role carved up off the bench. He is a guy that does a good job getting open without the ball in his hands. He could have really thrived playing with guys like Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz who have a great court vision. My guess would be that Smith is back sometime around November/December. However, one thing that’s certain with the Sixers, is that nothing is ever certain. Especially, when it comes to rookies and their injuries.
