Joel Embiid has surgery for appendicitis, leaving former MVP's status for postseason in doubt

HOUSTON (AP) — Joel Embiid has been diagnosed with appendicitis and Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse said the star big man was undergoing surgery Thursday.

Nurse said Embiid remained in surgery about 90 minutes before the start of the 76ers' game at Houston. The coach said Embiid felt fine in practice on Wednesday before he learned of the situation Thursday morning.

“I was told this morning, but they had said that he had in the middle of the night, like 3, 3:30 or something, contacted them to say he was not feeling well,” Nurse said. “And so I think that’s kind of when this particular incident started.”

Nurse said the team learned of Embiid's diagnosis while preparing for the game.

“They finally got him to the doctor and they had the scan and then decided they needed to do the surgery here in Houston,” Nurse said.

The coach did not give a timetable for Embiid's return, but it seems unlikely that the former MVP would be able to return for the play-in tournament or the first round of the playoffs.

“It is a tough blow,” Nurse said. “I think that the biggest thing right now is that Joel comes out of the surgery as best as possible and all that goes well. That’s where most of my thoughts are right now.”

The 76ers entered Thursday in eighth place in the Eastern Conference and on track for a spot in the play-in tournament, though they were only one game behind sixth-place Toronto.

Embiid has been limited to 38 games this season, sitting out primarily to manage injuries to his knees.

“They’ve played different stretches of the year without him,” Nurse said. “As far as what we do personnel-wise, we’ve got (Adem) Bona, we got (Andre) Drummond and we’ll use them both. And then hopefully we can use (Thursday) and (Friday) and Sunday get back to getting used to that scenario again.”

Embiid was held out against the Detroit Pistons on Saturday. He has not played in both games of a back-to-back all season.

After missing Saturday's game, Embiid had 34 points and 12 rebounds in Philadelphia's 115-102 loss at San Antonio on Monday night.

Embiid, 32, is averaging 26.9 points and 7.7 rebounds this season after playing in only 19 games in 2024-25. He hasn't appeared in as many as 40 games in a regular season since 2022-23, when he averaged a career-best 33.1 points and earned MVP honors.

Embiid expressed his frustrations with Daryl Morey, the 76ers' president of basketball operations, on Friday night for not allowing him to play at Washington last week.

“I was (ticked) off. I wanted to play basketball,” Embiid said. “I wasn’t allowed to play basketball, so I think this is more of a question of Daryl Morey or whoever makes the decisions.”

Nurse said it's on him to keep the team upbeat with the postseason approaching.

“We’ve got to pick ourselves up,” he said. “I’m the leader of the team, I’ve got to pick the guys up and they’ll understand the situation and we’ve got to be professional and we’ve got to go try to figure it out the best we can.”