Nuggets Fan Teases Joel Embiid With ‘Missing Person’ Sign After 76ers Ruled Star Out

Nearly five years have lapsed since two of the NBA's biggest stars met in Denver.

A quirk of modern NBA life is that two of the league's biggest superstars of the 2020s rarely play against each other.

It's not just that Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić play on opposite sides of the country, and thus in different conferences. It's that Embiid, for a variety of injury- and rest-related reasons, has missed every 76ers-Nuggets matchup in Denver since 2019.

That includes the latest showdown Saturday, aired on ABC and heavily promoted by the NBA. Nuggets fans responded to Embiid's knee soreness-related absence by raining taunts on a shorthanded Philadelphia team—including chants and a vicious mock-up "missing person" sign referencing the 76ers center.

This Nuggets fan has a Joel Embiid 'Missing Person' poster 😅 pic.twitter.com/Qv5TqnpOLb

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) January 27, 2024

In Embiid and Jokić's most recent clash in Colorado on Nov. 8, 2019, the latter posted 26 points, 10 rebounds and six assists against Embiid's 19 points and 15 rebounds. Denver rallied from 19 down at the start of the fourth quarter to win 100–97.

Since then, Jokić has won two MVP awards and an NBA title, while Embiid added an MVP award in 2023.