{"id":712076,"date":"2026-04-16T23:34:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712076\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T23:34:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:34:25","slug":"100-false-embiids-trainer-calls-out-skip-bayless-for-claiming-the-76ers-center-could-have-played-in-the-play-in-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712076\/","title":{"rendered":"“100% false” – Embiid’s trainer calls out Skip Bayless for claiming the 76ers center could have played in the Play-In game"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Philadelphia 76ers<\/a>\u00a0were able to secure a spot in the 2026 NBA Playoffs thanks to a 109-97 win over the Orlando Magic<\/a> during Wednesday night’s 7-8 Play-In Game. As a result, they’ll enter the playoffs as the seventh seed, taking on the second-seeded Boston Celtics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And while the Sixers were indeed able to pull off the Play-In win, they did it without the services of former league MVP and seven-time All-Star\u00a0Joel Embiid<\/a>. The big man\u00a0underwent emergency surgery<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday after being diagnosed with appendicitis.<\/p>\n

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Obviously, it’s no surprise that the big man wasn’t suiting up for Philly’s Play-In Tournament less than a week after getting surgery. Still, because of Embiid’s reputation for missing games, people are spreading some rather outlandish rumors.<\/p>\n

Take Skip Bayless, for example.\u00a0The longtime analyst went on Gil’s Arena and claimed\u00a0that\u00a0“sources” told him Embiid had been cleared to play, but decided to sit out.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got a pretty good source in Philadelphia who told me that Embiid is actually cleared to play, but has chosen not to play, that’s what I was told,”said<\/a>\u00a0Bayless.<\/p>\n

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Granted, appendicitis surgery, especially done via Laparoscopic Appendectomy, is a lot less invasive and can be considered a minor surgery. However, the recovery time is still about one to three weeks, which means it’s quite insane to expect Embiid to be cleared for intense physical activity just a week after surgery.<\/p>\n

“He could play if he chose to,”\u00a0Bayless continued, before suggesting that\u00a0his\u00a0decision not to take the court could be a cause for locker room turmoil.<\/p>\n

Hanlen shuts down Bayless’ claim<\/p>\n

Obviously, Bayless’ unverified claim didn’t sit well with many people on social media, including NBA skills coach\u00a0Drew Hanlen<\/a>, who has worked closely with Embiid. Hanlen\u00a0has also\u00a0worked with other\u00a0notable\u00a0NBA stars like Jayson Tatum<\/a>, Tyrese Haliburton<\/a>, Tyrese Maxey<\/a>, Bradley Beal<\/a>, Tyler Herro<\/a>, Zach LaVine<\/a>, and others.<\/p>\n

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The widely respected trainer took to social media to call out Bayless and his claims.<\/p>\n

“To set the record straight, this is 100% false. Nothing worse than when media members make up s\u2014t for clicks and views, then hide behind unnamed ‘sources’.”\u00a0Hanlen\u00a0wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Others said that Bayless was speaking purely out of hate and is simply a liar.<\/p>\n

Related: When Kyrie Irving finally stepped in for Kehlani during cheating rumors: “I have to speak on this simply because I owe it to you”<\/a><\/p>\n

Embiid was questionable to be in attendance at all<\/p>\n

As\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0by ESPN’s Shams Charania earlier this week, Embiid’s status for the rest of the postseason is also up in the air since the appendectomy needs to heal internally before being able to move on to\u00a0another process of the rehab, making Bayless’ claim sound even more insane.<\/p>\n

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In fact, Joel was also questionable to be in the arena at all. Still, to the surprise of Sixers head coach Nick Nurse and the other Sixers players, the star center was able to join the team for a pre-game film session, and the star big man was on the bench to watch his team clinch a playoff spot.<\/p>\n

“I know he was still doing some things; it was questionable whether he’d be here tonight because of some of the stuff they’re doing, but I didn’t even realize he was over there,”\u00a0Nurse narrated.\u00a0“I looked over, and he was sitting in his seat and had a big smile on his face.”<\/p>\n

With a tough Celtics team waiting in the first round, surely the 76ers hope that Embiid can, in fact, recover as fast as Bayless claims.<\/p>\n

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Related: “It’s this time of year” – Doc Rivers reacts to Joel Embiid’s season-ending injury ahead of playoffs<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Apr 16, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Philadelphia 76ers\u00a0were able to secure a spot in the 2026 NBA Playoffs thanks to a 109-97 win over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,88814,7,75,3086,7228,77,936,6,11,76,678,207,3817,3202,492,278,1263,3212],"class_list":{"0":"post-712076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-76ers","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-appendicitis-surgery","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-boston-celtics","12":"tag-bradley-beal","13":"tag-drew-hanlen","14":"tag-jayson-tatum","15":"tag-joel-embiid","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nba-playoffs","18":"tag-orlando-magic","19":"tag-philadelphia","20":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","21":"tag-philadelphia76ers","22":"tag-skip-bayless","23":"tag-tyler-herro","24":"tag-tyrese-haliburton","25":"tag-tyrese-maxey","26":"tag-zach-lavine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116417007824369950","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}