Much of the Sixers’ 2016-17 season was consumed by a logjam at center that included three lottery picks. Shortly before the trade deadline, Okafor was held out of games against Miami (February 11) and Charlotte (February 13). “There were trade rumors that were happening before the game,” Brown said at the time. “In those situations, I felt that it was best to not complicate things and not play Jahlil.”
On February 12, while Okafor was home in Philadelphia as the team traveled, a writer for the blog The Sixers Sense named Brian Jacobs posted a highlight from then-Pistons guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Eric jr replied, seemingly off topic, “I must be nuts, I cannot sleep because I worry Jah will not pass physical exams and sent back.” The next day, Jacobs posted a prospective trade that would ship Okafor to the Pelicans for E’Twaun Moore and a pick. Eric jr responded again. “I feel it in my bones, deal was done and Jah did not pass physical,” the account wrote. “Let’s wait & see, only possibility at this point.”
When Okafor rejoined the Sixers in Boston on February 15, Colangelo was criticized for creating an embarrassing situation for the second-year center. From that point onward, Eric jr (and other accounts) consistently claimed, dozens of times, that a deadline deal involving Okafor was derailed by a failed physical. A source tangential to the prospective trade told me that he wasn’t sure why the transaction never went through, but necessary paperwork had been drawn up and “the expectation was that the trade would be completed.”
Most of the tweets were directed toward basketball journalists and often tried to goad them into investigating the otherwise unreported allegation. “Ask Jah If he passed other team physical?” Eric jr tweeted at Keith Pompey, a Sixers beat writer for Philly.com. “I bet the farm it’s what’s happened.” The account made a similar suggestion to Jacobs. “Ask Jah If this is the truth? … You are a pretty established writer/blogger. Ask team for interview.”
One source familiar with Okafor trade negotiations between the Sixers and the New Orleans Pelicans told The Ringer that the source was not aware of any failed physical for Okafor, and that the deal fell through because Colangelo and Pelicans general manager Dell Demps could not agree on pick protections.
The anti-Okafor campaign resumed early in the 2017-18 season, this time from a different account, when it was reported that Okafor wanted to be traded out of Philadelphia (he was eventually dealt to Brooklyn in December; he would have had to have passed a physical at that time for the deal to have gone through). “Nobody wants him,” Enoughunkownsources posted in a pair of responses to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. “Last year he was traded and sent back because he didn’t pass physicals. He asked FO not to let the info out...Still the FO is not leaking the truth to save face, Okafor abusing that. If the truth came out Okafor would be the one looking bad.”
Did Bryan Colangelo confirm that we had a deal in place for Jahlil Okafor?
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