Out of sight, out of pined. Who needs Joel Embiid? Nikola Jokic-vs.-Victor Wembanyama is the NBA’s best big man tussle now, by default. The fault, in this case, being Embiid’s bum left knee.
“I always say this: I think the No. 1 thing for players that you can measure them on (is not) wins, losses, stats — but availability,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said before Denver took on Philadelphia, minus Embiid, late Tuesday night at Ball Arena. “I mean, that’s such an important part of it.
“And Nikola’s one of the more available superstars in the last six, seven years, I’d have to imagine. And so you just admire and respect his toughness mentally and physically to go out there and play at a high level, regardless of what’s going on within his body. He finds a way to overcome that.”
The gamers usually do. To wit: Jokic was ruled out with elbow inflammation less than an hour before Nuggets-Rockets this past Wednesday. Two days later, the Joker was in the starting five at Miami, torching the Heat for 24 points, 12 boards and 10 assists. At Orlando, two days after that: 20, 14 and 10.
Embiid, meanwhile, has played twice this month. And hasn’t hit the floor since Jan. 4 in Brooklyn because of “injury management” on said knee.
“You know, it’s really weird because I’ve come to expect that from him,” Malone said of Jokic. “Because it’s 10 years, you’re looking at a 10-year period of a body of work (of) how many games he plays, the injuries that he plays through.
“And so when he misses games — if he misses a game with an illness, you know he’s really sick. If he misses a game because his elbow is acting up, you know he can’t bend his elbow and he can’t shoot the ball. It’s to that extent. And so you come to really appreciate and admire his dedication to the craft, his commitment.”
Jokic laps the planet in counting stats. But this one might be my favorite: Among qualified centers from the 2018-19 regular season through ’23-24, the five NBA centers who took the most shots, the guys most central to their offense, wound up missing an average of 11.3 games per year.
Over that same stretch, Jokic missed just 5.2.
A man can get weary carrying a franchise on his back. Joker gets even.
He’s the engine that always turns over. In the darkness before dawn. When the temps are 20 below. If velociraptors are closing in.
Embiid, meanwhile, last played in Denver in November 2019, roughly 1,900 days ago. The average price for a gallon of gas then was $2.55. A dozen eggs cost $1.40. Nuggets rookie Trey Alexander was just 16; Sixers first-round pick Jared McCain was 15. Pandemics were still something we read about in history books, and, in hindsight, not mentioned nearly enough.
And how good has Jokic been this season, elbow pain and all? The Big Honey went into Tuesday night averaging more points per game (30.1) than Shaquille O’Neal ever did in a given regular season. He was averaging more rebounds (13.2) than Tim Duncan’s peak season on the boards. And more assists per game (9.9) than Stephon Marbury’s best per-tilt average in dimes.
Genius elevates. And maybe the most impressive effect the Joker’s had over the last three months is bringing out the best in 36-year-old Russell Westbrook, the sheer poetry of the pair’s two-man game. In 21 Beastbrook starts before Tuesday, the Nuggets had won 16 of them.
It takes Embiid — or rather, no Embiid, yet again — to remind us of the value of Jokic more or less always being there. For Malone. For his teammates. For Nuggets Nation. For NBA fans, home and away.
They could’ve been something. Muhammad Ali fought Joe Frazier as many times in his career — three — as Jokic and Embiid have met on the basketball court since 2021.
Jokic has tussled with Wembanyama six times already since the fall of 2023. Three of those tilts have been decided by six points or fewer.
“In this game, in a perfect world, it’s Joel Embiid versus Nikola Jokic, the two best centers in the world,” Malone sighed when asked the NBA’s Rivals Week, and the rivalry that really isn’t. “And, obviously, it’s not going to happen (Tuesday).”
Styles make fights. Not excuses. Not agendas. As arguments for the NBA’s best big man go, what they said in those old lottery ads applies to Embiid, too: You can’t win if you don’t play.
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