Fort Collins is as near to the NBA championship Larry O’Brien Trophy as Joel Embiid ever gets with the 76ers.

The league’s preeminent prize was on display 65 miles from the center’s team when Philadelphia arrived at the Colorado State campus and Moby Arena.

Embiid actually stepped onto a basketball court in Colorado Tuesday morning for the first time since Nov. 8, 2019, and only the third time in his career. His appearance was for a 76ers’ training camp practice — he was revealed on social media wearing flipflops and dancing by the basket — and the other two show-ups were for forgettable regular-season games in Denver.

Embiid has been inactive, injured, not with the team or chicken here in five of his seven seasons.

And Embiid, indeed, will hide out in the hotel on Jan. 27 when the 76ers are scheduled for their only game at The Jar, although he’ll have a day off before and after, and the league has new load-management avoidance rules in 2023-24. Still, he won’t want any part of Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets in altitude.

Too bad the Nuggets didn’t have a chance to sweep the 76ers in the NBA Finals last season. Of course, Philly failed, as usual, in the playoffs.

Welcome to Colorful Colorado, 76ers, new coach Nick Nurse, the players (especially Embiid) and maybe even James Harden, who was supposed to arrive late Tuesday, to be with the team he really doesn’t want and the team that really doesn’t want him.

The 76ers should enjoy Fort Collins — not Fort Hill, as a court jester in Philadelphia media called the city — until Friday, before being departing to play the Celtics, an authentic contender in the Eastern Conference with the Bucks, in two exhibitions. They can dine in Old Town and tour the Mulberry Water Reclamation Center.

Or they could drive south on I-25 to Denver to have a look at the O’Brien Trophy. At the Nuggets Media Monday, as he sat next to the trophy, The Joker joked that he was told not to touch it.

Yes, after groveling incessantly for three years, Embiid was selected regular-season MVP over runner-up Jokic, who had received the award in successive seasons and should have won a third after finishing first in the NBA in the categories of value over replacement player, efficiency rating, win share, offensive/defensive/overall plus-minus and triple doubles. Joker was named MVP in the real season: the postseason. He is the No. 1 player in the league by every ranking.

Jokic seems more excited about his off-season front flip from the boat into the river while rafting in Serbia.

Maybe Embiid will win the Fort Hill (Pa.) MVP this year.

The 76ers must have come to Colorado for a minicamp instead of Casablanca for the waters. Meanwhile, the Nuggets flew to San Diego for the ocean.

The Nuggets don’t really care about the 76ers and their drama with Harden, who did beat Jokic in something — average assists (10.7 to 9.8) — and is demanding to be traded to another team for the fifth time in his career. And they aren’t paying any attention to Embiid. In the Eastern Conference, the Bucks have acquired Damian Lillard to unite with Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the Celtics traded for Jrue Holiday. The Heat were left low and dry.

The Nuggets are more absorbed with the Suns — who have improved their depth, but lost center Deandre Ayton to the Trailblazers and Chris Paul to the Warriors — the Warriors, the Clippers and the Lakers.

Anthony Davis obviously intends to make the season personal with the Nuggets after LeBron James and he were swept like a sullied rug out of the previous playoffs. Finally, La-La Land acknowledges a rivalry. Davis misguidedly accused the Nuggets of garbage-gabbing L.A.

“It was just a lot of the talking. All right. We get it. Y’all won,’’ he said, then added that he and James “had some conversations like, ‘We can’t wait.’”

The Lakers do not have to wait long. They play the Nuggets opening night Oct. 24 in Denver, but obviously will stay in the locker room when the Nuggets receive their championship rings. And they may get another chance in the playoffs.

The Nuggets seek a repeat to match the Broncos of 1997-98.

This will be a funfest season in the NBA.

Embiid might as well play with 76 trombonists.