Being weird about Joel Embiid

Something about the greatest scoring big man in a generation gets (some) people all twisted up.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Venus and Adonis; Francisco Goya; 1771

Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers beat Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets 126-121 on Tuesday. Embiid, the two-time reigning NBA scoring champ, had 41 points to go with 10 assists and seven rebounds. He actually broke his streak of 30-10 games because Jokic soaked up a ton of offensive rebounds. Jokic had 25-19-3 himself. But the win over the fellow MVP-adorned center in an instant classic is probably enough for Embiid to sleep well.

Embiid is now 6-2 all-time against Jokic. Of course, Embiid hasn’t played in every Sixers game against the Nuggets. This is what a good number of analysts seem to be focusing on instead of the results. You may recall that Embiid had a tremendous game against Jokic and the Nuggets in Philadelphia last season, but then rested when the team visited Denver. The year prior, Embiid played in one of two games against the Nuggets. The other game came amid a stretch of nine DNPs for Embiid. In 2020-21, Embiid missed one match-up due to rest and the other while he was injured for a stretch. In 2019-20, Embiid played in both Denver games. In 2018-19, Embiid played in one and rested in one. That was Jokic’s first All-Star season; the two were not fighting for MVP trophies at that point.

As a fan, I want to see them face off as much as possible. Embiid resting in the Denver visit last year was disappointing. The murmurs that Embiid might rest Tuesday, the Denver injury report that called Jokic “questionable” to play — that was all frustrating. They are the two best basketball players in the world as evidenced by the fact that they have both finished first or second in MVP voting in the best league in the world in each of the past three seasons. You want to see them out there. I’m not annoyed that both coaches had defensive coverages that limited the mano a mano action, with Embiid roaming on defense and Aaron Gordon getting a lot of possessions trying to bother Joel. That’s modern basketball: consistent personnel match-ups are just not part of the deal.

I just don’t understand why there’s so much vitriol toward Embiid’s success.