Shoulder injuries have kept Markelle Fultz, the former No. 1 overall pick of the 2017 Draft, from steady playing time in the NBA. He’s been limited to 33 games in his two seasons and, last season, was dealt by the Philadelphia 76ers to the Orlando Magic at the trade deadline.
Fultz has put in a lot of work to recover from that injury and has his eyes on playing his first game with the Magic come this weekend. When asked at the team’s media day if his goal was to play in the preseason opener on Saturday vs. the San Antonio Spurs, Fultz confirmed that was the case.
His shoulder problems – first called a scapular muscle imbalance, a fancy way of saying the joints in the shoulder weren’t working together properly – took him out of the lineup for the first time after just four games of his rookie season with Philadelphia. He missed 68 games that year before returning for the final few weeks.
Fultz started Philadelphia’s first 15 games last season before things went bad again. He double-clutched a free throw in a game at Miami and was widely mocked on social media afterward. Before long, he was diagnosed with a new problem – neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome, a condition where blood vessels or nerves around the collarbone and first rib are compressed.
