Once the news came down like a hammer early Saturday afternoon - a second surgery, likely a second lost season, and maybe a lost career for 76ers center Joel Embiid - the only thing to do was to start making phone calls.
The phone calls were not about the Sixers' future or the wisdom of their decision to take Embiid with the No. 3 selection in last year's NBA draft. The former is unknowable, and the latter is immaterial. People have dug in on the Embiid pick. Either you recognize that the Sixers took a calculated risk in drafting Embiid - that the potential reward of his talent was worth the chance that a 7-foot, 250-pound man who already had broken the navicular bone in his right foot might have additional foot problems - or you believe that general manager Sam Hinkie should have been more conservative, that he should have drafted a lesser, healthier player or traded out of the No.