Let Me Be the First to Say Markelle Fultz is Completely Fine


The Philadelphia 76ers are currently in the layover period between the All-Star Game and the 2nd half of their promising season. The first half was an absolute roller coaster that featured both exhilarating and heart-wrenching moments that left the Sixers, well, pretty much where we thought they would be. At 25-25, the Sixers won their last five games heading into the break, hitting their stride and settling into rotations. The five game win streak corresponds with the Eagles Super Bowl victory that sent the city into pandemonium and fed the other teams in this town a burst of life like naloxone in a heroin addict. Everything is coming up Philadelphia, including with the Sixers. Embiid is playing back to backs, Simmons deserved to be an All-Star, Dario has found his shooting stroke and they just added key depth in Marco Bellinelli. Despite all the recent burst of sports success Philly has experienced, one dark cloud hovers over our glory: Markelle Fultz.

 Last week, Kyle Neubeck published an extremely meticulous article detailing months of behind the scenes coverage on Markelle’s shoulder and shooting woes. The article left more questions than answers, causing an uproar among fans who want to know how this saga could have possibly happened with no end to it in sight. Questions like, “how did he hurt his shoulder?”, “who is to blame for hurting his shoulder?”, and “did he even hurt his shoulder at all?”. A #1 overall pick, with one of the purest shooting strokes of all time coming out of college, looks like the Monstars came down from Moron Mountain and sucked his talent out of him so they could beat the Looney Tunes. IT MAKES NO SENSE.

 After months of deliberating whether he was hurt and if he truly is a bust who will never to return to the shooter he was, I have finally settled on my hot take for the matter: Markelle Fultz is totally fine.
 When I was younger, I played baseball and was a pretty good hitter. One game, the opposing team brought the reliever in who was a classic young kid who threw a flamethrower and had absolutely no control. As we filtered through our batting order, he was beaming kids left and right. When it was my turn, I said “fuck it” and went to the bathroom. Before anyone says anything about taking one for the team let me defend myself and say, it was a contract year, had to make it from pony baseball to the midget leagues. But, bottomline, I was scared of the moment, and Markelle Fultz probably is too. That’s okay, he’s only nineteen.
 Looking around the league, this rookie draft class (not including Simmons) isn’t exactly thriving. Check out Lonzo Ball and De’Aaron Fox on a nightly basis and you won’t be blown away. Guys who thrive in their rookie year aren’t just studs, they are outliers. If Markelle needs a redshirt year to develop, that’s perfectly fine. There is little to no ill-effect for the Sixers. With the emergence of TJ McConnell and the acquisition of Bellinelli, the Sixers have solidified their backcourt depth for the year without needing to rely upon Fultz. As frustrating and mind-boggling as it is to not have him out there, he has the asset of time on his side.
 The much larger issue I see with the Fultz saga is the head-on collision between the Sixers brass and Fultz’ posse, especially his trainer, Keith Williams. I’m not a huge fan of that clown (Jason Kelce voice), Bryan Colangelo but talented basketball players have to stop trusting family friends with developing their game. These days, being an AAU coach means you understand basketball like being the President means you understand politics. When Markelle left the Sixers summer league team, his “hesi-pull Up Jimbo” was looking like this:

When he came back from over a month of extensive work with his trainer, we were stuck with this:

Doesn’t bode well for Williams.
But, as Neubeck illustrated in his article, even as early as preseason, Fultz showed glimpses of being fine:

This is what leads to my theory that the shoulder injury has been slightly exaggerated to fit Fultz’ personal timeline on when he will be ready to play. At some point in the dog days of summer, when the elongated NBA season has finally ended and we are less than patiently awaiting Eagles training camp, Markelle Fultz will pick up a basketball and find his stroke. A lot of playing sports is just  being in a positive mental state. The Nelson Agholor comparison that has been floating around can certainly be an accurate one. He was a guy who not only could not catch, but could not even line up right. His burst and his acceleration was always evident, it was just a matter of getting his mind right. The same goes for Fultz and hopefully he gets his act together by the the time we’re contending for titles. And if he doesn’t, and I’m totally wrong, at least we will have Lebron:
By Aidan Powers | February 20, 2018