Keeler: Joel Embiid made a kid cry and lost NBA MVP case to Nuggets star Nikola Jokic in one sad, sorry afternoon
https://www.denverpost.com/2024/01/27/joel-embiid-nikola-jokic-nuggets-philadelphia-sixers-nba-mvp/
key points:
- "All Nicky Karabel wanted for his birthday was to see Joel Embiid play in person. Just once, you know? So father Sam shelled out $500."
- "A few minutes later, Embiid came out to the floor for his pregame routine. Sam had Nicky hold up the sign for the league MVP to see, hoping it might bring him over for a high-five. An autograph. A wave. Something.
The note was on a white board that stretched from Nicky’s shins to his chest. It was so big, in fact, that if Nicky wasn’t 8 and adorable, Nuggets security told me, they would’ve confiscated it, per arena policy. It read:
HAVE NO FEAR EMBIID IS HERE"
- "As Embiid finished his warm-up for an afternoon on his backside, Nicky and his family huddled with other Sixers fans above the West tunnel, the shortest distance to the away locker room, waving that sign, leaning over hopefully, hoping to get his jersey signed.
Embiid blew through the tunnel.
-" When I caught up with the Karabels a few minutes later, Dad was hugging his young son tight. Nicky’s cherubic face had turned bright red, cheeks flushed, eyes downed in tears of disappointment. No autograph. No recognition. No nothing."
If I weren't banned in r/nba I'd post it there myself.
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f this kid
Rare W from Joel for making the kid cry
You guys are fucking killing me 🤣
That's what Nicky said after getting the cold shoulder from their idol.
Agree
To quote Michael Jordan
Aww yeah, get massively disappointed by one of your heroes bitch
jokic would never
Fuck his bitch and the clique he roll with
This kid DOESNT know ball smh
Where's R Kelly when you need him...? /s
Embiid poisoned our water supply, burned our crops, and delivered a plague unto our houses!
He did ?!?!
No, but are we just gonna wait around until he does?!
I say we tip something over !
GET THE LIFEGUARD
He did?
He turned me into a newt!
Speaking of which, I have a potion requiring one of your eyes. Would you like to fall in love?
My reasoning capabilities as a newt are severely impaired, so I don't see how this could go badly for me
And did he really have to salt the earth?
The argument of Embiid should lose MVP votes for ducking difficult games is valid, but this article gets a bit weird with the crying kids stuff.
I think they only made that a point because last time Curry sat out in Denver, a little girl was crying. Curry felt bad that she couldn’t watch him play so he bought her and her family tickets for another game. Embiid couldn’t care less about disappointing kids and fans. I think that’s what the article is getting at
Completely off topic. But my sister took my nephew to a warriors game here. He’s a HUGE Curry fan, against my wishes, they got close for warmups, Curry even came over and took the basketball my nephew had to get signed, got called, didn’t sign and walked away after handing the ball back.
I’ve never seen a kid so heartbroken.
That’s ruthless. It’s one thing not to sign a ball. But to actually take the kids ball and hand it back without signing it, is just plain mean. Doesn’t really surprise me. Curry has this nice guy image but I know better. His community was considering building “low income” housing and Curry voted against it. And when I say “low income” the houses were going to cost around 800k. So upper middle class families would have bought those houses. But apparently that’s too poor to be living next door to Curry. He views us as peasants.
I mean I’ve seen the guy do some great stuff. And I completely understand getting called away. But find a way to get back. The kid was 10 at the time and he still talks about it 2 years later. He also owns two pairs of curry shoes (I hate that his mom buys these for him) and watches curry’s ball handling stuff all the time. I tried to reach out after it happened to the warriors and Steph and was soundly ignored on both twitter and facebook. Crazy though.
Not defending Curry but $80K in SF is not even lower middle class. $80K there qualifies you for below market rate housing. If you’re making less than $100K in SF and not in a rent-controlled place you’ve been in for a decade-plus, you’re poor.
But like. Who cares
His job isn’t babysitting your crotch dumplings. Fuck them kids. The fact that Steph did something really cool and COMPLETELY not out of obligation doesn’t mean every major player is suddenly responsible for some random’s ugly kid having a fun time
No one is saying he is responsible for anyone’s kids. The issue is that he is sitting out the game, not because of injury, but because he just doesn’t want to play. He hasn’t played in Denver since 2019. And these tickets were significantly more expensive because it was going to be Jokic vs Embiid. Players “resting” has become a legitimate problem in the NBA.
I mentioned that in a different comment; sure the sitting out is weird but if he’s sitting out so much why do y’all care? Doesn’t that automatically mean Jokic wins this weird ass center war we have going on w philly??? Like?? Why does Denver of all people GAF that embiid is benching himself?
Like okay then get out of the way so Jokic can go off.
But nah everyone is crying about how embiid can’t hold a candle to Jokic etc etc etc but if he never plays why is every nuggets fan on the planet so afraid of the guy
This is……something.
Something tells me Lil Nicky is in for a lifetime of disappointment.
It’s got to be tough as a superstar traveling from city to city and getting 50-100 requests per night for acknowledgment, autographs, etc.
In the Last Dance, it showed that Michael Jordan couldn’t even leave his hotel room or he’d get swarmed by fans.
You can’t please everyone all the time.
These little ass kids think they’re entitled to shit for no reason
That's what I was thinking, too. You made a sign. Good for you. It just had the wrong message on it... "Have no fear, Embiid has knee soreness...again!"
Right??? Like goddamn didn’t you come to see him work his literal day job?? Nobody demands you pay attention to them while you’re shoveling cow shit, why do you think you deserve special treatment at someone else’s workplace
I get all the Embiid hate but we gotta let it go. Pretty normal for stars to not sign autographs right before games and to keep driving this narrative is a bit thirsty IMO
You do you, just don't tell me what to do. I enjoy this.
So fucking glad theres others on here that feel the same way. Its absolutely exhausting dealing with constant Embiid discourse on here and its so fucking toxic. Can't stand the users that just berate him every second of every day on here
Honestly it’s the pettiest dumbest shit ever. Embiid is genuinely a good guy and a great player when he’s in his element. Sure the ducking is mad weird but that doesn’t change the fact that he could be blindfolded and still put the smackdown on every single one of y’all
Guys I know it’s really really hard to grasp but there actually can be more than 1 good center in the nba
Yeah, but also, Embiid’s a bitch
Lol, I tried. This forum viciously tore me apart. They have no desire to adult. The majority of responses were exactly the same as you got from OP, 'DONT TELL ME WHAT TO DO, LET ME HATE.'
There are few things more childish than presenting your opinion as the moral one without argument or justification, but to follow that up with using 'adult' as a verb? That's impressively childish, frankly.
If you project any harder you're going to get stuck in an IMAX theater.
We all have that child in us. Don't shame the child in me, and I won't shame the child in you.
You teach your children to hate?
I don't have children. Now, if I did? I absolutely would!
The fact you cant tell that OP is clearly memeing is pretty sad
Don't bother lol, last year during the playoffs, there was a point where the entire front page was Lakers hate, and when I made a post asking if we can have some nuggets talk, the mod told me to get out of this sub lmfao
edit: downvoted for saying r/denvernuggets should talk about the denver nuggets, I don’t like embiid too but god damn does he turn you guys’ brain to mush lmao
Listen next time
just curious, maybe im misunderstanding, what about what i said did u not like? I just want the r/denvernuggets subreddit to be about the denver nuggets, rather than r/fuckembiid
So talk about the nuggets. Don't make a stupid post complaining about what Nuggets fans are talking about.
Look I’m on here about 24/7. I’ve never once seen you. How about you actually participate instead of hating from the sidelines?
fair point about participating more, fine, but how the fuck am I hating on the nuggets in my comment?
preach bro, some of the mods here just add to the toxicity in this sub (the most embarrassing thing is Jokic clearly doesnt give a fuck but these keyboard warriors basically think they need to start a war for him)
It's normal to not sign autographs...if they know they're going to play. Dude was already preparing to duck, might as well go ahead and sign a few for the kids.
He didn’t lose his MVP case lol. It didn’t last year and it’ll be forgotten the next time Embiid drops 50
drops 50 against a 10 win team with 19 free throws and then ducks the next team above .500
No, he drops 50 on the #1 defense Timberwolves. He drops 70 on wemby, he drops 40 point triple doubles on jokic, damn near 50/20 against jokic last season. But nah he sucks cause he "ducked" a game. Also yesterday's game against the warriors definitely proved that he was faking the limp against the nuggets fr, he looked perfectly fine!
wow you're really making it shine buddy
Just tired of all the bullshit slander against Embiid, if that means I'm polishing his tip then so be it
I think it’s probably a good thing you’re banned from r/nba lol
lol is Embiid supposed to sign 50 autographs before going in and out of the tunnel 4 times a game? This is a big nothing burger sorry the kid was disappointed but you can’t just expect to get an autograph.
this sub so badly wants Embiid to be Hitler reincarnate. If Embiid had a family tragedy there are users on here who would celebrate it, I'm convinced they are that toxic at this point
Bro knew he wasn't playing, it would've been better for him to sign 50 autographs before the game than to do that sham of a warmup.
The kid learned an important life lesson which is bigger than meeting Embid.
Fuck that kid....Joel probably.
This inspires a new sign for the next time Embiid ducks @ Denver:
Have
nofear, Embiid isn't hereHow’d you type that? Pretty cool
~~ on each side for the strikethrough, and the carrot ^ for the superscript. Check out the formatting help button on the bottom right of replies (at least for desktop).
Fuck that kid and fuck his family
As of a week ago Embiid was averaging more pts per minute than Wilt did when he averaged 50ppg. If that continues and he plays enough games he wins MVP.
So, entitled kid didn‘t get his jersey signed or any attention from the desired athlete. Maybe daddy should have bought courtside seats instead of being a cheapskate?
What a fucking punk. If was Jokic out he would be sitting on the bench the whole game signing autographs for kids with one hand and supporting his teammates with the other.
Sounds like another Nuggets fan has risen…
Next time bring a horse if you want real MVP attention
Honestly F little Nicky, pick a better role model and you won’t end up so disappointed. You had it coming Nicky you fool
Good.
Not like the guy had an nba game to play or anything lol. My dude the guy is at work
Like damn nobody ever tries to get you to sign their burger while you’re working the drive through, calm down Karen
Horrible parenting let the kid root for a winner
Honestly, the Nuggets do the same shit.
As part of a fundraiser with the AHA, kids that raised a certain amount got access to special priced tickets to 4 or 5 different games. Each game had an option of either signing up to go see pre-game warmups, or shoot free throws post-game. My son opted for pre-game warm-ups, courtside.
This was last season against the Clippers. Not a single Nugget player stopped to acknowledge any of the kids or sign anything, no pictures, nothing. Pretty shitty if you ask me, considering it was not a large group size at all.
I fully understand blowing off adults, as some might just be looking to sell your autograph. But we're talking elementary age kids that see these guys in a different light.