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Eric WoodyardESPN
Utah Jazz forward Joe Ingles‘ iron man streak ended in Milwaukee on Friday night after 384 consecutive regular-season games played.
Ingles, who held the longest active streak in the NBA, missed Utah’s 131-118 win over the Bucks because of right Achilles soreness. He hadn’t missed a game since Dec. 16, 2015, against New Orleans. Including the postseason, Ingles had played in 418 straight games.
Over the years, he played through a middle finger sprain and left ankle sprain, and even after learning that his son, Jacob, was diagnosed with autism.
“I know he’d be playing if he could,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said ahead of Friday’s tip-off. “There’s been a lot of times that he’s played through pain and probably an injury that he hasn’t told us about at times. But, obviously, you miss a player in the short run like Joe, but he’ll be back.
“He’s just gotta get healthy and we try to do what we can do to make up for not having him. But as much as anything, it makes you pause for a second and you reflect on what a streak of consecutive games like that means and what it says about Joe, his toughness, his commitment, what type of teammate he is. You pause and reflect for a second and you understand why you respect him like you do.”
With Ingles out, Cory Joseph of the Sacramento Kings is the NBA’s active leader at 274 straight games entering Friday. A.C. Green holds the NBA’s all-time record at 1,192 straight games.
Ingles, 33, is averaging 10.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists this season for the Jazz. His streak was the longest by a Jazz player since John Stockton from 1997 to 2003, when he played 442 consecutive regular-season games.