The Philadelphia 76ers’ top draft pick curse continues with Zhaire Smith

Zhaire Smith is the latest in a long line of Philadelphia 76ers top draft picks to be injured before playing a single NBA game.

The Philadelphia 76ers‘ top selection at No. 16 in the 2018 NBA Draft, Zhaire Smith, has suffered a foot injury at an NBA summer development camp in Las Vegas. Smith will undergo surgery later this week, according to Yahoo! Sports‘ Shams Charania.

So what else is new? This seems to happen every year to the 76ers since they started “The Process” of tanking to accumulate draft picks. Maybe the team has been cursed by the basketball gods.

Actually, the Sixers selected local favorite, Villanova 6’7″ forward Mikal Bridges with the 10th pick and traded him for Smith, who was selected out of Texas Tech by the Phoenix Suns. The move was seen as way of clearing cap space to sign free agent LeBron James. The 76ers saved $1 million in salary, but James ultimately signed with the Los Angeles Lakers.

You can’t play a draft-night shell game with the basketball gods. The curse still found the Sixers’ top pick in the draft. Another year, another Sixers first round pick who will be hobbled by injury.

Let’s take a limp down the 76ers’ injured draft pick memory lane.

It started with the 2013 NBA Draft, the first of “The Process,” when the 76ers selected Nerlens Noel out of Kentucky at No. 6. His college career ended in his freshman year when he tore the ACL in his left leg. He missed the his entire first season in the NBA because of the injury.

In the 2014 NBA Draft, the 76ers selected Joel Embiid out of Kansas with the third overall pick. Embiid would have been the consensus No. 1 pick in the draft if it was not for a stress factor in his right foot. Like Noel before him, the seven-footer missed his first NBA season due to injury.

In 2015, the Sixers selected Jahlil Okafor with the third overall pick in the draft. Okafor actually played his first year, but on March 11, he was ruled out for the rest of the season after tests revealed that he had sustained a small tear of the meniscus in his right knee. Meanwhile, Embiid missed all of his second season after suffering a setback in his recovery in the offseason.

With the first overall pick of the 2016 NBA Draft, Philly selected Ben Simmons out of LSU. In September, Simmons suffered a Jones fracture in his right foot when he rolled his ankle during the last scrimmage of training camp. He was forced to sit out his first season in the NBA.

In 2017, the Sixers acquired the No. 1 overall pick and selected Markelle Fultz out of the University of Washington. The shooting guard played only 14 games his rookie year because of a mystery ailment that made his jump shot disappear. The team’s official explanation was muscle soreness. Others believed there was a psychological problem. After riding the bench in the 2018 NBA Playoffs, Fultz spent the offseason finding his jump shot with the help of shooting guru Drew Hanlen.

Finally, we come to the 2018 NBA Draft and top pick Zhaire Smith. Will he miss the entire season like many of his predecessors? If Shakespeare was right and what is past is prologue, then yes, he probably will.

But if that means he will come back from injury to have seasons like Simmons or Embiid, then it will once again be worth the wait.