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PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid has recovered from foot injuries and should be ready to play when the team opens training camp in two weeks.Embiid, the No. 3 pick in the 2014 draft, has yet to make his NBA debut because of two surgeries on his right foot that stunted his progress and put a serious crimp in Philadelphias rebuilding process.Coach Brett Brown said Embiid, a 7-foot center out of Kansas, will play this season with yet-to-be-determined restrictions to ease him into the NBA. One such condition could include holding him out on the second night of back-to-back games.Embiid, 22, has wowed the organization in private workouts since the end of last season and his potential has Brown excited that the Sixers -- coming off a 10-win season -- have found their cornerstone center.He needs to be the crown jewel, the centerpiece of our defense, Brown said.Embiid broke his right foot during a pre-draft workout in 2014 and sat out last season when he needed a second surgery because the foot had not healed. Because of his injury history, Brown said Thursday he could not say for certain that Embiid would start opening night Oct. 26 against Oklahoma City.The Sixers open training camp Sept. 27.Joel is on track to play, Brown said Thursday. We will learn more about the restrictions that will come his way. What I see so far gives us great reason to be extremely excited.Embiid has played very little competitive basketball in his life and has been inactive since the end of his lone season at KU. He grew up playing soccer and volleyball, and only decided to pursue basketball at the end of high school. He started to blossom as a senior at The Rock School and ultimately chose to attend Kansas, where he arrived with less fanfare than fellow freshmen Andrew Wiggins and Wayne Selden.Embiid hurt his back while landing awkwardly during a game late in the season, and missed the Jayhawks final two regular-season games and the Big 12 tournament. He also missed a victory over Eastern Kentucky and a season-ending loss to Stanford in the NCAA tournament, after which he said that he would have been able to play had Kansas advanced to the second weekend.Everyone is still waiting for his return.I think that the path has unfolded, sort of organically, with the injury, then the setback and now here he is. I think we could look back and say in an inverted, twisted type way, it has provided him a layer of growth, Brown said. I think he sees the world a little bit differently in relation to taking things far more seriously professionally. I see a more mature Joel Embiid today. Зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы увидеть ссылку! . -- Chicago Bears cornerback Tim Jennings was selected Monday to his second straight Pro Bowl, while guard Kyle Long made it after a solid rookie season. Зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы увидеть ссылку! . Peter Gammons, an analyst for Major League Baseballs network and website, drew the ire of hockey fans on Sunday when he criticized the two NHL teams on Twitter for their physical game the night before. Зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы увидеть ссылку! . World champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia won the gold medal with 237.71 points, Moore-Towers and Moscovitch followed at 208.45 and Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia were third at 187. Зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы увидеть ссылку! . That gave fans outside Joe Louis Arena another chance to ask for autographs from the 19-year-old whose stardom in the NHL has arrived earlier than most expected. Зарегистрируйтесь, чтобы увидеть ссылку! . Andrew Luck lost his favourite target and the Indianapolis locker room lost one of its most revered leaders when Reggie Wayne was diagnosed Monday with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee that will cost him the rest of the season. FORT WORTH, Texas -- The NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Texas turned into a night race, finally getting underway after a rain delay of nearly six hours Sunday.Polesitter Austin Dillon led the 40-car field to the line when the race began under caution, with the laps finally starting to count about 6:55 p.m. local time. That was after the cars had done 23 uncounted warmup laps to help dry some still-damp spots on the 1 1/2-mile track.There was still a significant chance of more rain throughout the night.Drivers were introduced and the national anthem performed near the scheduled 1 p.m. start. But rain started about the same time before drivers had even gotten into their cars.This is the fourth consecutive race weekend at Texas with weather issues.Efforts to dry the track included several dryer trucks continually circling the track throughout the afternoon and even when the race started under caution. That task was made more difficult with an overcast sky, and the temperature hovering around 60 degrees with very high humidity.The AAA Texas 500 is the second-to-last race in NASCARs playoffs before the season finale at Homestead in two weeks.Jimmie Johnson, the only driver locked into to a champiionship shot in the finale, started 19th.dddddddddddd. He won the last four fall races at Texas.The spring Cup race at Texas in April, which was a scheduled night race, was delayed more than two hours because of rain and didnt end until after midnight. Kyle Busch won that race.In June, the IndyCar Series race was initially postponed a day because of the wet track. After starting late the following day, the race didnt get to the halfway point before there was more rain, and then wasnt completed until 2 1/2 months later.Last November, Sprint Cup drivers lost their two scheduled practice sessions the day before the race while officials tried to dry the track following overnight rain, though the Xfinity Series race was run later that day.The Cup race in April 2014 was postponed a day by rain.BIG BOBBLEHEAD: The first 30,000 fans were given Tony Stewart bobbleheads commemorating the retiring Sprint Cup drivers final race at Texas. But during driver introductions, Stewart got a bobblehead of his own -- a larger-than-life-sized replica of what was given to the fans. ' ' '