Joel Embiid’s offseason foot injury likely cost him the No. 1 overall selection in Thursday’s NBA draft and he ultimately only fell two spots to Philadelphia at No. 3. However, the former Kansas 7-footer thought the injury would drop him to the second round.
“I mean I thought I was going to drop to the second round. I was kind of surprised they took me at three,” Embiid told Gary Bedore of the Lawrence Journal-World on Friday.
Despite the injury, no noteworthy draft site or analyst predicted the former Jayhawk would fall outside of the top 10.
“People were talking everywhere, on social media. I bought into that,” Embiid added.
He and his family watched the draft at the house of his agent Arn Tellum in Los Angeles and was given no indication that the 76ers were considering selecting him before hearing NBA commissioner Adam Silver call his name.
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