Fandom from Afar
Join me as I discuss my journey as a Colorado sports fan living in Florida and my interviews with sports fans that are forced to enjoy their favorite teams from a distance.
Fandom from Afar
Embiid Ducks the Nuggets Again
Embark on an emotional rollercoaster with me as we dissect the Denver Nuggets' turbulent five-game journey through the eyes of someone who experienced the adrenaline-pumping highs and gut-wrenching lows firsthand. From the strategic triumph over Boston to the bitter disappointments against Philly and New York, this narrative isn't just about basketball—it's about the heart and soul poured onto the court. As we relive the anticlimactic rematch that left fans and players desiring more, you'll gain insights into what these pivotal games signal for the playoff dreams of the Mile-High City.
Then, we wade into the deeper waters of NBA narratives, dissecting Joel Embiid's MVP candidacy and his peculiar pattern of no-shows against the likes of Nikola Jokić. Through candid conversations, including a poignant one with Coach Prime, we peel back layers on competitiveness and reputation that often stay hidden beneath the hardwood. The episode isn't all serious game talk, though; we'll lighten the mood with a laugh at Jokić's nonchalance towards All-Star hype and a nod to Nate Bargatze's comedic genius. So, grab your earbuds and join us for a session that promises to be as entertaining as it is enlightening, with a side of humor to keep things fresh.
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Welcome back everybody to Fandom From afar. I am back after a little bit of a break. I was actually at a conference last week, so my voice may sound a little hoarse I feel like I was yelling the entire time, but it was so great. It was a podcast conference and it was just so fun to be surrounded by other podcasters who just love the creative side of sharing their story and making a podcast. It was really encouraging and just really fun to hear people's stories and kind of their journey of how they started doing their pod. I just loved it.
Speaker 1:If you're listening to this, I hope this is not the only podcast that you listen to. There's so many good ones out there and I hope that you've found some. If you have a hard time finding podcasts for a subject that you're interested in, please feel free to reach out to me. I would love to help you find something that you just have a good time listening to and that'll help support the person who's creating it. So yay, podcast, let's do a nuggets check in.
Speaker 1:They've just finished up a five game road trip and they went three and two, which is fine. That's pretty much what we expected, but I wanted to focus on three of the games, and it's not just the three wins. I wanted to focus on kind of the three bigger games, which would be the loss in Philadelphia, the loss in New York and then the win in Boston. So the loss in Philadelphia obviously hurts. You know, I kind of take on the nuggets side when there's a big nuggets and Philly rivalry and that is mainly due to the Yokech versus Embiid rivalry. So the game was hyped up. It was a good game. Both teams, I think, played pretty well. The Nuggets just kind of fell apart in the fourth quarter and Embiid truly was amazing. He was taken mid-range jump shots, three pointers. He was just making everything. So hats off to him. He really really played well and it was an impressive win. I can't say really anything except that they outplayed the Nuggets that night and they were the better team. Now that was not the case for the loss in New York.
Speaker 1:You could tell the Nuggets were at the very end of a road trip. You could tell maybe that they had a night before where maybe they had a little bit of time to go out and enjoy the nightlife in New York, and that's not surprising. They are early 20 year old millionaires who are in the city that has the best clubs in the world. So, pardon me, doesn't blame them. But at the same time it was a joke of a game. They put forth zero effort, except for Jokic. He looked good, he was trying, but the other guys they just were not with him and it was frustrating to watch. But it was pretty clear early on what was happening and so I think I just turned it off and watched a show with my kids or something, because it was clearly not going to be a good basketball game.
Speaker 1:What was a good basketball game was the game when the Nuggets took on Boston. Boston was undefeated at home. They were 20 and 0 and this was fun because it really was treated like a playoff game for both teams. It was kind of exciting to see the Nuggets turn it on and show that they still had it, and Boston they've been amazing this year. Their talent fits really well together. They're extremely deep. It could have been a finals preview and if that is a finals matchup, that would be so fun to watch, just because the two teams do kind of match up well with each other. And it was a great game. Jokic and Murray kind of did their two-man game down the end and Boston went cold, which I think a big part of that was when the Nuggets locked in on defense. They, they're great. They have Length, they got intelligent playmakers, so it it would be such a fun matchup to watch Boston versus Denver and it was Really the key game of the road trip for me. I would have loved to have won the Philadelphia game and obviously New York has been playing extremely well since they traded for OG and a newbie, but I Don't know that Boston game. They've kind of been the cream in the crop in the NBA and it was just nice to see the Nuggets step up their game to match and obviously beat the best team in the NBA this season. So to be honest, no matter what happens the rest of season barring injury, of course, the fact that the Nuggets did that on the road in Boston I'm gonna be pretty confident going into the playoffs with the Nuggets. We've talked extensively about how the Nuggets look terrible the last month of the season and then, winning the playoffs, turned on the switch and Won the championship. So I guess it was a good reminder game and it's just. I will have that confidence, no matter what happens the rest of season that the Nuggets still can flip the switch and Be an elite team when it when, when it's needed.
Speaker 1:And then last night I'm recording this on Sunday, so Saturday night the Nuggets had a huge game against Philadelphia. It was the rematch. We lost the game in Philly about 10 days ago and now Philly was coming to Denver and Obviously it's billed as rivalry week on ABC and ESPN. They've been specifically scheduling matchups to just have some hype around some regular season games and obviously Yokich versus Embiid it doesn't get any bigger than that. They're the two best players in the NBA. They've won the last three MVPs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they, they were hyping this game up like crazy and it was supposed to be great and it was a total letdown. Now this obviously happened because at the last minute Embiid said he wasn't playing. Philadelphia also said that Maxi and and Harris and just really they. They rested all their guys, whether through injury or sickness or We'll go over what we think in Embiid's case was, but Just a letdown. You could, you could feel it in the building the, the Nuggets were let down, the fans were let down. Even the announcers were let down. You could tell they had so many talking points that they had gotten ready and the the TV crew had some graphics ready. Just talking about what a big matchup it was and it should have been a great game but it was Not. Not meant to be. And yeah, the Nuggets won, but it it was pretty much a joke of a game that the Nuggets went through the motions, they beat Philadelphia's bench players and it's just.
Speaker 1:I Think it speaks to a bigger problem that the NBA has and obviously specific players are a big part of that. But the NBA tried to set up a week where there would be big games and people get excited about it and and there's been some great games and I'm sure they've been fine. But like the Denver vs Philly game, to match up the best two players in the league was kind of the Really the key one. They they had it at their afternoon spot on on Saturday so that everybody could see and they wanted to make it a big deal having the best two players go against each other and whether it's for MVP this year or just kind of bragging rights for the rest of season. But it was supposed to be such a big deal and it just did not happen. And it's rough.
Speaker 1:The NBA regular season has so many games and you would hope that some are great, and obviously we had an episode a couple weeks ago where the Nuggets and Warriors game ended up being amazing and I was just talking about that's what it. That's why you are a fan like, that's why you want to stay up late to watch those games, because you get those moments, but the random ones are so much fun. But you should be able to look forward to a game because of the match up and and it may not be great, but you would hope there's at least a chance for it to be great. And it just gets taken away from fans so often just because players don't want to play or they feel like they don't need to play. It's you can probably hear my voice. It's just disappointing and I don't know what the NBA can do about it. I would love it if they cut down the number of games in the regular season to make each game mean more, and then, if there was less games, players would obviously get more rest so they wouldn't have an excuse to sit out the games that are still on the schedule.
Speaker 1:But I think it's just becoming more and more apparent that something needs to happen, just because I don't think yesterday was unusual. I think it happens a lot in the NBA and one thing I feel bad about it was all over social media yesterday was so many people in Denver paid so much money to get into that game and it was barely a professional game like I just can't imagine. I'm sure this game was like Christmas presents or birthday presents for people that love the nuggets or even just basketball, and they were not cheap. And then you go there and that's the show that you get and I would be so frustrated, I felt so bad for all these people that on social media yesterday were just posting pictures like, hey, I flew into town just for this game. Or hey, I got these tickets from my kids for Christmas and nobody's playing, and so it just hurts the sport. It's just, it's a terrible look and really I don't know what can be done, but it's embarrassing, it's just terrible. Kind of the spin off of that.
Speaker 1:Something I think that's kind of obvious is the best two players in basketball Yokic and Embiid. Both do not want the MVP. Yokic we talked about all his, the difficulties that he went through last year, with the narrative being put on him to the point where he pretty much, just purposely lost the MVP last year and then this year he's shown no interest in it. People try and bring it up to him and he just does not care. And I think Embiid is showing kind of the same thing. There's a game you have to meet a minimum number of games played this year to win the MVP or any of the other awards in for the NBA and Embiid is down to. I think he can only miss five more games the rest of the season and at first I thought that would maybe deter him and he would want to play just because he wants that MVP. But it's really good.
Speaker 1:More and more like what he wants is for people to say that he should have been MVP, but knowing that he's not going to make that game excuse me, that games played Mark, he it's. It's like a no-lose situation for him if he puts up all these giant numbers in far less games and people will say, yeah, he, he should have won MVP, but the NBA had that rule and it's. It's kind of no-lose because then he gets the best of both worlds. So just just another thing to look for. I I almost hope that, like Shay Gildes, alexander or someone takes it that actually really wants it. I would love it if Yokic wins it, but I just feel like if people try and make him the the MVP again, he's gonna tank the the rest of season. So part of me hopes that they give to someone else. But so I've been dancing around it.
Speaker 1:But obviously the big kind of flying the ointment yesterday was Embiid and how he handles his schedule and really his reputation. So a big talking point this year has been how Embiid has always kind of ducked the games in Denver. There always seems to be some sort of injury or illness or something, because he loves the narrative where he gets to dominate in Philadelphia and then he never comes to Denver and it's. It's kind of it's become a thing. The national media definitely picked up on it this year and so they were making such a big deal about how 10 days ago Embiid even said like hey, yokic, I'll see, I'll see in Denver in 10 days, like I'm gonna be there. And they were making a big deal about how he was not on the injury report, like he's gonna play and I just think he wants to control the narrative so bad that he's scared of things out of his control, which obviously playing on the road against a really good team and a really good player and Yokic is out of his control. But that's just part of sports, like it should not scare him to the point where he's constantly avoiding all these games just to try and control the narrative.
Speaker 1:Michael Jordan has lost a ton of games and went against great players the Bron James, same thing. They, they face the best and hey, if you lose but you face the best, who cares? That's? That's sports. That's why you should be a competitor. But he just seems to avoid anything difficult at all costs and it's. It's sad for the sport that that's one of the best players in basketball when that's how he thinks.
Speaker 1:Like I said, he was not on the injury report. He did tweak his knee in the previous game but it was not a big deal. He continued in the rest of the game. If it would have been showing any sort of injury at all, they would have put him on the injury report just to put him on there, because it's literally against the rules to not be on the injury report and then not playing a game because of a quote, unquote injury. He warmed up. He was out there during warmups and everybody said that it looked like he got tired really quick and maybe that's the big thing is like he knows he's a huge, gigantic human being and so he knows the altitude is tough and so maybe that's the reason why he avoids it because he just does not like running up and down the court and altitude and I don't know. If he got that tired to fake an injury, then it is what it is and we're never going to see him. But it's one of those things where all the talk for two weeks was that he was going to play and then he comes out and warms up and then all of a sudden it has an injury.
Speaker 1:I heard on a podcast earlier it was reminding me the 76ers actually came out to Colorado for their training camp and trained up in Fort Collins just to kind of training. An altitude is great for athletes. And one night they had a team dinner and this was right during the middle of when Coach Prime at University of Colorado was really just the talk of the sports world, really he was just everywhere and they had him come speak at the team dinner and Coach Prime was just talking about competitiveness and just really being an athlete in today's world and he specifically looked at Embiid and said I don't want to hear any more about you ducking Yokech, like I hope to see you here this year in Denver. And Embiid's just sitting there nodding and like yeah, and like you would have thought, with all the coverage that that got, that could have maybe got Embiid playing, but nope.
Speaker 1:So Embiid's going to continue to pick and choose when he wants to play and really his pattern is he will play at home, he will play on the road against bad teams and it's really not surprising that he's putting up these giant numbers. I think almost any NBA player, if they were playing far fewer games and choosing the lesser opponents, would put up pretty, pretty big numbers. So it's just kind of funny that the narrative is out there and he just doesn't seem to care. They play Portland on Monday and they are terrible. So I'm sure Embiid will play and I'm sure he'll put up 60 points and he'll think that that makes him a great player. But it's, it's getting embarrassing for him and he's got to put up in the playoffs, like everyone saying it's great, you're great, you are a great player. Nobody doubts that. But everyone wants to see him in the playoffs when it counts and it's just going to be fascinating to see what happens.
Speaker 1:And I know I've rambled on this for quite a while, but I will finish up with. I think he put pressure on himself, without even knowing it, a couple I guess it's been about a year now when he was really campaigning for the MVP last year and people were talking about pressure and he said, oh, there's no pressure on me, there's pressure on other people who have two MVPs and no championships. That's where the real pressure comes in. And he was obviously talking about Yokec. And now he's putting himself in a position where he could be what he was talking about of a two-time MVP winner, and he's never even made it out of the second round. And so that's maybe part of the reason why he is avoiding the MVP again this year by sitting out some of these games.
Speaker 1:So rant over. I promise Embiid, talk is over for this episode. So I appreciate you all listening to that, but you can tell it frustrated me. So what am I looking forward to this upcoming week? Well, the Nuggets have two huge games against Milwaukee and Oklahoma City. Milwaukee is one of the best teams in the East and OKC has been one of the top teams in the West and they've beat us twice already. So two I think they're going to be really fun games. Milwaukee has been playing better since they brought in their new coach, which we'll talk about here in just a moment, and Oklahoma City is just one of the best stories of the season. So they we have to go on the road to play them, and it'll be a good measuring stick game again just to see when the Nuggets head is out and how they match up with a team that's really just playing so well and just beating everyone.
Speaker 1:So my favorite yokism of the week which is anything that our favorite guy yokich does During the time since we've recorded he was named as a all-star starter this year. So that means he got the fan vote, the coaches vote, the players vote. He got all the votes and he was, of course, a starting front court player for the West and I kind of love it because I Think all his fellow players know that he hates the all-star game and just does not take it seriously at all. So he's actually a terrible player in the all-star game and that that's kind of why he was picked Almost last last year. He probably would have been picked last, but he kind of Self, picked himself and just went on to LeBron's team and LeBron didn't really have a choice, which was pretty hilarious, but at least he wasn't picked last. Right, but he probably would have been picked close to last again today, even though everyone knows he's one of the best players in the world, but they also know he thinks the all-star game is kind of a joke and and they just don't really want someone out there that's not trying. So he'll be a starter. He'll probably put in like five good minutes and then ask just to sit down on the bench.
Speaker 1:Now with recommendations, I normally try and recommend something that's going to make you a better fan, like I've talked about different podcasts or different websites, that kind of thing. I Wanted to balance it out today because I know my opening segment was very negative about the state of the NBA and obviously Joel Embiid, so I wanted to Bounce it out and we'll bring some some laughter to my recommendation. Today my wife showed me a clip of Nate Bargatze on Saturday Night Live and it's the George Washington sketch. So if you haven't seen it already, look up SNL, bargatze, george Washington, and it just made me laugh so much. It's like perfect Bargatze. He kind of has that deadpan humor and I really, really enjoyed it. I've watched it multiple times. So if you're down in the dumps about the NBA, to then it'll make you smile. And Then the last segment, everyone's favorite.
Speaker 1:Oh, there are other teams. That's where I forced myself to talk about other teams besides the wonderful Denver Nuggets, and I want to talk about three different teams today. And first, one I mentioned earlier Milwaukee fired their coach and and obviously that's not unusual, coaches get fired all the time. But this is unusual because Milwaukee has one of the best records at the NBA and Something bad must been going on behind the scenes. Obviously, the players did not get along with the coach very well. There was multiple instances where they kind of called him out in the media directly, and the worst thing that I saw was the coach was trying to make a substitution one time and Took Yanis out and Yanis did not like that. So he just stepped out of bounds, sat on the scores table and then checked himself back in and that's just kind of showing up the coach in front of the whole stadium and I'm sure it was probably curtains for for the coach since then. So It'll be interesting to see what they do. They brought in dock rivers and obviously they're very talented. They're change over from Drew holiday to Dame Lillard has been good for the offense, bad for the defense, which was to be expected, but it'll be interesting to see like the the players got what they wanted. So maybe, maybe that's a good thing, maybe not.
Speaker 1:The second thing I wanted to talk about is there's been some huge scoring nights lately. Luca, he scored 73, indeed had his 70, and then Carl Anthony Towns and Devin Booker each scored over 60 as well. It's it's really interesting to see the difference in reaction in all these. Embiid was first, yet he had the 70 point game and everyone was going crazy and it was Incredibly impressive. Of course it was against the Spurs with who are her a terrible, but I Don't care who you're playing against. Scoring 70 points in an NBA game is just it's, it's remarkable, so, so obviously everyone was loving that game. And then that very same night, carl Anthony Towns scored over 60, but there was such a weird vibe around that game in general, he had 44 points at halftime, so people were going crazy. They're like oh and bead got 70, can cat get 80? And I think at first his teammates were really happy, like they're like oh, cats on fire, feed him the ball, let's, let's do this huge game.
Speaker 1:And then, as the game went on, it just deteriorated and you could see his teammates started resenting him, almost like their best players is Anthony Edwards, and Anthony Edwards was refusing to shoot. He would just like pass of aggressively, just pass the ball every time, no matter if he was open or not, like they were force feeding cat, just trying to get him in the ball every single time. And you would think, if someone scores over 60 points, that they're going to blow the other team out. Well, they were blowing the other team out, but they were just force feeding cat every single time and like stopped playing, that they ended up losing the game. And, of course, that's super awkward To celebrate a great performance, because hardly anyone ever scores over 60.
Speaker 1:But the quotes after the game, just the, the reaction from the teammates. Nobody was happy for him. Everyone was mad. They lost the game. The coach was furious because they weren't they weren't playing basketball, all they were doing was just giving the ball to cat and just stand around and be mad at him.
Speaker 1:Like it was just really, really awkward and it's gonna be interesting to see what the rest of our season goes like, because it it was not good the way, the way they handled that, it it could tear that team apart, and they've been doing so well, and so I I don't know that. I would almost say like I would not be surprised if they traded cat, just because it's kind of obvious that he's talented, but nobody I I don't want to go as far as nobody likes him, but like it just seems like they do not respect him. It was just such a weird game and Not not quite to that level. But Devin Booker had a similar situation where he scored over 60, uh, same night as Lucas Gordon 73, and so it's kind of funny how these are all bunched up together. But Again, bookers came in a loss and it was a similar situation. Like everyone knew he was on fire and so they started force feeding him and then they couldn't get back into a regular basketball rhythm and ended up losing the game, and so it's just so interesting. These performances are historic, yet A couple of them are almost looked like as negatives on their team and and the record, obviously because they got a loss. But it's, it's been really impressive to see these numbers but at the same time, how they happen and and just the game flow has been really interesting as far as just a whole More than basketball approach to it. So, uh, it'll be interesting to see if these giant numbers Continue, if someone's gonna score 80 or if they can pass Kobe and score 82. So, um, it's been interesting.
Speaker 1:And then the last one is I just want to talk and say the playoffs Are going to be amazing. Both conferences have so many good teams that I really hope everyone stays healthy. Um, in the east, boston did just get a poor zingus injury, who's been huge for them, but, uh, hopefully he'll be okay. But I just really want everyone to be healthy, because it's it's going to be a dogfight in both conferences. Boston, I think, is On a level of all the round on the east, but then you get philadelphia, milwaukee and then, like I said, the nicks have been playing really well, miami's always great, cleveland's been playing really well.
Speaker 1:That there's not going to be a bad matchup, no matter what the combination is in Probably the first round, but If, like atlanta, sneaks in there or something like that, then I expect them to get blown out. But in the second round it's just going to be the best, the best going against each other, and it's going to be so fun. And same goes for the west. Every team has been playing well that we kind of expected to play well. Now Phoenix has kind of figured it out, the clippers have been awesome, the Sacramento has been good and then the top teams of okc, minnesota and denver, um, look great.
Speaker 1:So I really hope we get a year where everybody stays healthy, because there always seems to be one or two big injuries. It takes that away, but this year would be so fun just to watch everybody match up. So that is it for today, and we got a lot of fun stuff coming up this week and in the future for the podcast in general. We're we're well past the new year and heading into spring, so of course there's going to be some more good football talk. Uh, I got a lot of baseball ideas I want to do too. So, um, thank y'all for listening and we will see you next time.
