For the last few years, Denver Nuggets fans have poked fun at Philadelphia 76ers star center Joel Embiid due to his consistent absences when the Sixers face the Nuggets on the road.
Facing the Nuggets nine times in his career, Embiid has played Denver just twice on the road. The first time was on December 5, 2016. The second and last time occurred on November 8, 2019.
With Embiid rarely competing against the Nuggets on the road, and him being one of the very few centers in the game who can go toe-to-toe with Denver’s superstar big man Nikola Jokic, Nuggets fans have displayed a strong dislike for the Sixers center over the years.
Denver’s hostile crowd hoped for an Embiid sighting on the court on Saturday night. Unfortunately for all parties involved, the big man’s recent knee concerns prevented him from suiting up.
Embiid was left off the Sixers’ injury report for most of the day on Saturday. He had plans to play, despite tweaking his knee during the Sixers’ Thursday night loss on the road against the Indiana Pacers.
But after going through his pregame warmup routine, the team’s medical staff decided to rule him out as a late-scratch. Embiid, who was at Ball Arena, waited a while to face the crowd on Saturday.
Throughout the first half of the matchup, Nuggets fans spent plenty of time chanting at Embiid, who was out of sight. Eventually, the big man made his way to the bench and played to the crowd.
Channeling his inner Allen Iverson, Embiid made a pumped up motion before putting his hand to his ear, encouraging the trolls to keep it going.
While Embiid doesn’t typically feed into the big man rivalry narrative, he did recently admit that he’s well-aware of the constant debates regarding Jokic and himself on social media. As a self-proclaimed social media troll himself, Embiid encouraged fans to keep it going.
On Saturday, he faced the crowd for the first time in a while. Unfortunately, he couldn’t attempt a follow-up outing to his 41-point, ten-assist double-double he put on display against the Nuggets a couple of weeks back.
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