Julius Randle fires back at report he’ll need foot surgery, but multiple reporters confirm it’s a real possibility

A report surfaced on Thursday stating that Julius Randle, who is expected to be selected with one of the top 10 picks in the upcoming NBA Draft, has a foot issue that is likely to require surgery.

This isn’t Joel Embiid and something as severe as a back injury we’re talking about here, and if Randle had the surgery as expected, he’d likely be ready to go in time for the start of training camp in October.

But Randle apparently wasn’t thrilled with the surgery option being reported as being a foregone conclusion, so he fired back a little later via (what else?) his Twitter account.

I never do this but it was brought to me and it’s crazy how people put stories out there and have no clue what they are talking about.

— Julius Randle (@J30_RANDLE) June 12, 2014

No disrespect but check with the actual source next time before you put something like that out there @WojYahooNBA

— Julius Randle (@J30_RANDLE) June 12, 2014

Now, Randle is only 19 years old, so we’ll forgive his youthful exuberance here. But there is nothing to be gained from refuting information that is not only being reported by one of, if not the top breaker of NBA news in Adrian Wojnarowski, but also by a whole host of others.Randle’s response caused Wojnarwski to back up his report, and caused others to chime in, as well.

Multiple teams considering Randle in and out of draft lottery have his medical info and expect him to have surgery on foot. It is an issue. — Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) June 12, 2014

NBA teams are worried that Randle failing to undergo a relatively minor procedure this summer could leave him open to major problems later.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) June 12, 2014

From Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders:

Couple of comments on Julius Randle’s foot --- 1st, teams have seen his medical and will form their own opinions about what is next. Randle may be denying reports - but teams may feel like he’ll require surgery hence the “sourced” comments. That does not mean Randle is planning for surgery or that he will have it -- this happened to Jared Sullinger - teams predicted he would.

And from Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress:

Don’t understand Julius Rande’s strategy of trying to discredit @WojYahooNBA. There is an issue w/his foot. Heard same from multiple teams.

Other reporters have the same information, all of which means that yes, there is an issue with Randle’s foot. Has surgery already been declared a necessity? No, and that’s why the original report has the word “likely” in the headline.

Randle may have misunderstood, or may have been simply reacting to second-hand information. But with something like this that is coming from just about everywhere, taking the time to publicly refute it was a mistake.