It’s been a little more than a week since Markelle Fultz was activated to begin play for the first time since October, after months of working on rehabbing his busted shot. Entering tonight’s game against the Pistons, he’d shot 17-of-39 from the field since his return, but not one of those shot attempts had been a…
Sixers rookie Markelle Fultz is currently trying to transition from being an injured dude with a busted shot to an actual real-life basketball player, but it’s been a bumpy road, and it hit another hitch in the Philly game tonight.
He wasn’t a revelation. For that matter in many ways he was pretty clunky. A handful of times last night, in his first game action since October—since some mysterious combination of shoulder injury and Steve Blass disease took away his ability to perform basketball’s most fundamental act—Markelle Fultz seemed not to…
Over the past month, Sixers first overall pick Markelle Fultz has improved his busted-ass shooting form, not only making his shot smoother but also longer. The culmination of all that hard work came today, when the team announced Fultz will play in tonight’s game against the Nuggets. Head coach Brett Brown was elated:
It is now March 25; the Philadelphia 76ers have 10 games left in what has been a smashing success of a regular season; and we are still getting vague, noncommittal updates on the playing status of young Markelle Fultz. This comes via the Associated Press:
Last time we checked in on the status of No. 1 overall draft pick Markelle Fultz’s shot, he had discovered the magic of the three-pointer. Today, Fultz shot some free throws, an exercise which revealed an alarming hitch two months ago. Let’s see how much he’s improved.
The Sixers are almost certainly going to the playoffs, and the future looks bright for a team that was 10-72 just two seasons ago. They’ve also done this without the No. 1 overall pick whose shot is fundamentally borked.
No. 1 pick Markelle Fultz has apparently been granted permission to shoot outside the paint. He was exercising this new freedom in the shootaround before the Sixers’ win over the Heat last night.
Herb Magee is the all-time Division II leader in wins, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, and No. 3 among all NCAA men’s basketball coaches in wins, ever. In his 51st season as the men’s basketball coach at Jefferson University—formerly known as Philadelphia University—he’s also a renowned shooting expert and…
The vaguely and increasingly sad saga of Markelle Fultz’s lost shooting stroke has become one of the defining stories of this NBA season. And yet, for all the reporting and blogging around it, all the proffered diagnoses from coaches and GMs and anonymous sources close to Fultz or the Sixers, all the baffling and…
Sixers GM Bryan Colangelo held a brief scrum with reporters today to update everyone on the status of No. 1 overall draft pick Markelle Fultz, who has not seen the court much this year after injuring his shoulder and then developing what appears to be a pretty serious case of the yips. So how is Fultz progressing?
My friends, truly I say to you today: Markelle Fultz has discovered the solution and fixed his fucked-up shooting form.
Here is the current state of Markelle Fultz’s free-throw stroke (please watch with the sound on):
The fog surrounding Markelle Fultz and his possibly injured shoulder and definitely broken jumper has started to lift, and the Sixers are now beginning to admit that everyone’s worst fear has come true: Markelle Fultz is healthy, but he still cannot shoot a basketball properly.
Uh. Hmmmm.
Even when it at first looks like good news, no Markelle Fultz news is ever good news. For example:
Word started to spread Sunday morning that the Philadelphia 76ers would be sharing an update on the injury status of young Markelle Fultz, and that the news would be positive. That’s great! There has been almost no good Fultz news from the moment the Sixers drafted him—any good Fultz news is great Fultz news.
No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz is currently unable to play for the Sixers due to an injury to his right shoulder. Since he’s right-handed, the injury has prevented him from shooting a basketball, and yet there he was today during a team practice, shooting jumpers ... with his left hand.
