Joel Embiid’s trainer fires back at ‘ducking’ Nikola Jokic narrative

Embiid has struggled with injuries throughout his career, and they have frequently coincided with him missing out on his battles with Jokic. Some of these absences have been very last minute, or out of the blue entirely, which has led fans to believe that he’s simply avoiding Jokic because he doesn’t want to play against his fellow perennial MVP candidate.

Hanlen says that’s simply not true, and looks at the numbers he’s put against Jokic as evidence. In his two games against Jokic over the past two years, Embiid has dominated him. If he plays so well against the Denver Nuggets star big man, what reason would he have to willingly sit out games when they are supposed to face off against each other?

Whatever the reason may be, though, it’s sometimes hard to ignore Embiid’s absences against Jokic. An easy way to get this narrative to go away would be to simply play against him, or, he could always go win a championship, which is a pretty good way to shut the haters up too. Starting on Wednesday night against the Heat, Embiid will have a shot to do the latter, and maybe even bump into Jokic in a potential Finals matchup with the Nuggets.

The easiest way for Embiid to destroy these narratives once and for all is to simply go out and win, but that will be easier said than done given that the Sixers are fighting for their lives in the Play-In Tournament currently. Either way, it will be interesting to see what Embiid can accomplish, and you can bet fans will be tuning in if he somehow ends up in the Finals against Jokic and the Nuggets.