Joe Ingles hasn’t missed a game since December 16th… 2015. There are people watching my channel RIGHT NOW who weren’t even born when that happened. Okay, maybe they’re not watching my channel, but they are on YouTube, watching toy reviews or those creepy bootleg Mickey Mouse cartoons with hypodermic needles and pregnancy and stuff. And it’s not like Ingles was even injured; apparently he had some sort of “oral surgery” (basically they went in there with a bunch of drills and other dangerous-looking implements and just poked his teeth with them for an hour) that was previously scheduled.
I can’t find out the reason why he missed three games in February of his rookie season, but presumably he was actually injured, for what turned out to be the only time in his career. At this point, we can safely assume that he is literally uninjurable. And almost certainly immortal. Have we seen him die even once during his career? No. That checks all the boxes for “immortal”, it seems like.
Ingles’ game is well-suited to preserving his body; he just doesn’t move very fast. Can’t tear an ACL when you never make a hard cut! Can’t sprain an ankle when every footfall is carefully planned at least five seconds in advance! He’s a deliberate player (not as deliberate as Kyle Anderson though, who is the one who really deserves the “Slo Mo” nickname), and he uses that to his advantage, like in this game, where the long and athletic Brandon Ingram didn’t know what to do with him. He is walking evidence that the NBA needn’t go in the direction of athleticism over everything else. Sometimes having actual basketball skills helps in winning actual games.