It is safe to say Joel Embiid is not a very popular man in Denver. Embiid missed the road game against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets for the fourth straight season and was showered with boos by their fans for it when he appeared courtside on Saturday night.
In typical Embiid fashion, he embraced the boos, but you can’t blame Nuggets fans too much for booing him. The 29-year-old was not listed on the injury report, and this contest was supposed to be the one where he played in Denver finally.
It wasn’t to be, and his last game in Denver remains a contest all the way back on November 8, 2019. Prior to booing him here, Nuggets fans had also roasted him by chanting, “Where’s Embiid at?” earlier in the game.
Embiid’s absence here was because the Philadelphia 76ers medical staff was concerned when they watched him during warmups. They decided not to risk him, but at this point, not many outside of Philadelphia would be buying that, whether fair or not.
The reigning MVP has now developed a reputation for sitting out of road games against tough competition, and missing this contest on Saturday night just makes things even worse. This Nuggets-76ers game was part of “Rivals Week,” but with Embiid out, all the luster was gone.
Despite Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Tobias Harris being out, though, this ended up being a rather close game. The Nuggets would eventually prevail, however, as they won 111-105 to drop the 76ers to 29-15 on the season.
Joel Embiid Spoke On The Narrative About Him Ducking The Best Teams
Embiid has been called out on social media time and time again this season for missing road games against the top teams in the league. He has obviously heard about it as well, and Embiid responded to the haters who claim he misses these games to pad his stats against weaker teams.
“I saw it. But I can’t control if I get sick… Can’t control if my knee is gonna swell up… The goal is to bring in wonderful players. If I can’t make the criteria of 65 games by not playing against the best teams in the NBA, as long as I’m ready to be dominant when it gets to that time in April, that’s all I care about.”
Considering Embiid’s injury history, you do get that he will inevitably miss games here and there. He has never even managed to play 70 games in a season at any point in his career, but when you miss four straight road games against a particular team, eyebrows will be raised. All of this would be brushed aside, of course, if he does go on a dominant playoff run this season.
Joel Embiid Will Be Ineligible For MVP If He Misses Seven More Games
Embiid is having a phenomenal 2023-24 season, with averages of 36.0 points, 11.4 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.8 blocks per game. His efforts are very unlikely to be rewarded with a second straight MVP award, though, as I don’t see how he meets the 65-game eligibility requirement.
Embiid has missed 11 games this season, and the maximum a player can miss and still be eligible for any award is 17. The chances of him only missing six games the rest of the way seem incredibly slim to me. It would be a shame for such an incredible campaign not even to be considered for the award, but Embiid would only have himself to blame.
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