February 28, 2026
Johni Broome underwent surgery for the torn meniscus in his right knee on Saturday, the Sixers announced. Broome will be reevaluated in four weeks.
Broome, the No. 35 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft in June, is one of the most decorated collegiate players in recent history. But he has not sniffed head coach Nick Nurse's rotation at any point this season; only one of his 11 appearances was during a situation other than garbage time. Broome logged 55 minutes and only made four of his 24 shot attempts across his NBA cameos, with the vast majority of his action coming in the G League with the Delaware Blue Coats.
After indicating Broome's surgery was nearing on Thursday and that it was a distinct possibility the 23-year-old does not return this season, Nurse said he was not disappointed by Broome's lack of NBA action as a rookie.
"I'm not disappointed with it," Nurse said. "I think that part of developing players, sometimes it's – some of these guys have to spend a full year in The G, and that's part of the development for some guys. Some guys are up and down. I think he's made some nice progress. I'm disappointed that this happened to him. I'm not sure it's going to end his season, but it's going to be pretty close. So that's disappointing, because I thought he was playing pretty good down there, continued to improve and like what I've seen so far. This kind of puts that on hold a little bit."
Where did Nurse see improvement from Broome specifically?
"I think just confidence. Confidence and feel," Nurse said. "Both in and out, rebounding, passing, just getting a lot of minutes down there. I thought he was carrying himself very well. I thought he was putting in the work and taking it very seriously and being a good teammate and making the other guys on his team better."
MORE: How the Sixers landed on Broome two years after first meeting him
