At least Deion Sanders still got the chance to go to bed on time.
When the news came down that the Philadelphia 76ers’ Joel Embiid was going to miss yet another showdown with the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić on Saturday afternoon, with left knee soreness forcing Embiid out mere minutes before tip-off, it extended his streak of games missed in the Mile High City that began in 2019. It also brought back to memory that moment when Sanders, the University of Colorado football coach and NFL legend had challenged Embiid, the reigning NBA MVP, during their Colorado training camp dinner nearly three months before. Once again, we were all subjected to the exact sort of development that so many hoops fans had hoped would never happen again.
Yet again, Embiid’s health was getting in the way of the kind of greatness this league has rarely seen.
Along the way, the debate about this season’s MVP award grew even more interesting because the Sixers star is now just six missed games away from being disqualified for postseason awards by way of the league’s new player participation policy that requires at least 65 games played (the Sixers have 38 games left). For the Sixers’ purposes, it appears first-year coach Nick Nurse’s preseason plan to compel Embiid to take Jokić head on inside his 5,280-foot elevation home has failed — for now, at least — though the big men did square off last week on TNT for a game in Philadelphia. Embiid had his way in that matchup, finishing with 41 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds in the 126-121 win while Jokić had 25 points, 19 rebounds and three assists. The only saving grace in this latest would-be faceoff, considering how Sanders had framed this controversial conversation, was that the afternoon tip-off time meant there was no sleep lost for Sanders in the process.
“When we came up, MJ (Michael Jordan) wanted that smoke,” Sanders had said that night with the Sixers in Colorado, while reflecting on his NFL career as a transcendent star. “He wasn’t ducking whoever was that dude. He was going to get it. That’s the era I came up with. Now that main guy ain’t guarding the main guy. He don’t want it. He’s (worried he’s) gonna foul out. And I understand that. But it’s a little different.”
With Embiid sitting in the center of the table directly in front of Sanders, he continued.
“I’ve got Jerry (Rice),” he said. “Don’t worry about that. I’ve got this. I’ve got Mike (Irvin). So it’s a little different. It’s a little different today. There’s a lot of folks ducking that smoke right now. They want to be Tarzan on paper. Don’t sell me the game and (say) this is what I’m going to get, but when I turn on the TV, I don’t get that. I don’t like that. Give me that.
“If Embiid is playing the Joker, I want to see Embiid versus the Joker, all right? I want to see that. And he goes and gets it, right? I love it. I love the matchup, but I want to see it. That’s what I want to see. That’s why I stayed up. I want to see that. I didn’t stay up for nobody else to be on the Joker. I ain’t got time for that. I’ll turn to BET and watch the BET Awards.”
Unfortunately for Sanders, the BET Awards aren’t until June.
So, I’ll ask my colleagues Sam Vecenie and Mike Vorkunov: With Nuggets fans having poured salt in this wound by chanting “Where’s Embiid at?” during Denver’s 111-105 win Saturday, how do we see this situation? On the one hand, Embiid’s health status may turn out to be completely legit. After all, he missed three games in early January with this very ailment.
On the other hand — and this is the part the NBA will likely take issue with — he wasn’t listed on the Sixers’ injury report heading into the game, and the organization could be subject to league discipline as a result. At minimum, it’s fair to acknowledge this was like a heavyweight boxing match where one fighter doesn’t show up. There was a shock…
This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .