Coach Michael Malone expects NBA ‘will look’ into reasons why Joel Embiid missed out vs. Nuggets

This weekend, fans were all hyped about another matchup between Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic, but to everyone’s surprise, the Sixers announced right before the contest that their star big man wasn’t fit to play. At that point, there was no shortage of disappointment from fans at the Ball Arena in Colorado. 

The 76ers player had competed in his squad’s previous six games, including one against Denver, in which he dropped 41 points and led his team to victory. This is why the reigning champions were eager to get their revenge this weekend, as coach Michael Malone was baffled as to why his opponent was absent.

“I don’t know how you go from being active, available, to out. I’m sure the league will do their due diligence. Because that’s frowned upon.” the Nuggets trainer told reporters postgame.

Michael Malone: "I feel like there was a letdown when we found out Joel Embiid wasn't playing." pic.twitter.com/ml6bFQgqX2

— DNVR Nuggets (@DNVR_Nuggets) January 28, 2024

Malone is convinced that the NBA will have to look into this one. “And we’ve had situations this year where we’ve talked to the league, and they told us if a player goes from active to out, there’s going to be an investigation,” he added.

Nevertheless, the tactician admitted that he did see Joel get hurt in Philadelphia’s previous match. “I’m sure that Joel—he hurt his knee in the Indiana game, I guess real. We watched the game … so I’m sure he’s hurt,” he recalled.

Despite Malone’s confusing run of comments, he mostly wanted to express his team’s disappointment when the news of Embiid’s absence was announced right before tip-off.

It will be interesting to see if the league actually does investigate Embiid’s situation, as load management has been an especially-debated topic this campaign. In the end, Jokic led his squad to a 111-105 victory on Saturday after posting 26 points, 16 rebounds and 7 assists.

Rival coach Nick Nurse took the opportunity to clear the fact that there was nothing sinister behind his superstar’s absence. “He really wanted to play, and the medical team did not deem him fit to play today,” he said postgame. “That’s too bad for those fans. That’s too bad.”

Jokic defended Embiid by saying that he only deserves respect after the exhibitions he’s pulled off this campaign

Once the game was over, the press was all over the Serbian superstar, asking him what he thought of the reigning MVP and his unfortunate injury. Even though fans were extremely disappointed with the fact that Joel wasn’t fit to play, Nikola insisted that his opponent only deserves respect.

“If you’re a basketball, soccer, horse racing fan, Denver Nuggets fan, Philadelphia fan, whoever, enemies, whatever, I think you need to respect what he’s doing. He’s putting history in front of our eyes and he’s making it look so easy,” Jokic stated after his squad’s triumph.

NBA legend Magic Johnson was another who couldn’t hide his dispiritedness before watching this intense clash. However, he then turned his eyes to the Lakers-Warriors matchup which turned out to be a second-overtime classic.

“I’m so disappointed that I won’t get to see Jokic vs Embiid, as Embiid announced he won’t be playing. But I’m excited to watch the showdown of stars LeBron James and Steph Curry at 5:30! The Lakers and the Warriors have been struggling, so this could be a season-changing win for either team!” he wrote on X.