Joel Embiid the MVP front-runner. But his eyes are focused on earning his first NBA title
Joel Embiid didn’t want to campaign for his MVP case during his All-Star Weekend news conference.
“I don’t really want to push for the whole thing, but the way I’ve been playing speaks for itself especially with everything we went through – the drama this whole year and obviously missing a big piece and everything added to our team,” he said. “The way our team was set up, I had to take my game to another level whether it was offensively, defensively, playmaking, and obviously I’ve got great teammates who come in every single day and help me a lot.
“But it always goes back to winning. I know that for us to win, I’ve got to be dominant. As long as we win, I’ll be at that level and have a chance to win it all and win the MVP.”
Embiid has been dominant and has a chance to win MVP, and in a deep race that features past MVP winners (Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Steph Curry), Embiid might be the favorite with six-plus weeks left in the regular season.
Embiid averages a league-high 29.6 points, 11.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.4 blocks and one steal and shoots 49.5% from the field, 36.9% on 3-pointers and 81.3% from the foul line. A true center has not led the NBA in scoring since Shaquille O’Neal in 1999-2000.
Embiid's player efficiency rating – the measurement of a player’s positive and negative contributions while on the court – is third in the NBA this season, just behind Antetokounmpo and Jokic.
Asked if this is his best NBA season, Embiid said, “When you look at it, so far. Still another level I believe I can get to and I plan on keep working to reach that level. If you look at since I got to the league, last year was great. This year, especially based on the circumstances, I really had to take my game to an even higher level.”
He mentions “drama” and “circumstances,” and it’s impossible to ignore the Ben Simmons situation that dominated Philadelphia’s season until the Sixers traded Simmons, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond to the Brooklyn Nets for James Harden.
Embiid told ESPN he tried to repair damage that had been done but came to this conclusion: “It was tough. I didn’t care anymore,” he told Malika Andrews.
But just because that one circumstance disappeared, it doesn’t mean another one didn’t arrive. The Sixers, who are in third place and three games behind first-place Chicago, have a short time to figure it out with Embiid and Harden. Just 24 regular-season games remain for Philadelphia.
“I don’t think it will take long,” Embiid told reporters at Friday’s shootaround before the Sixers played the Minnesota Timberwolves. “He’s a great basketball player obviously, but he’s also very smart. … But at the end of the day, it starts at the top. We’ve got to want it. I’ve got to want it. And he’s got to want it. And the other guys are going to follow.”
Embiid also said of Harden: "He’s a great person, a great personality. Always smiling. Fun to be around. His presence – on the team and on the floor – has really changed us a lot since he got here."
Harden can play with other stars and succeed to a certain level. But help a team get to a championship? The Sixers believe so. It can be argued that Embiid has not played with as talented a guard as Harden, and Harden hasn’t played with as talented a big as Embiid.
Since Harden emerged as a superstar, he has never been to the NBA Finals, and Embiid has not advanced beyond the second round.
“It sets our expectations even higher than they were before,” Embiid said. “It puts a lot of pressure on everybody. So I’m excited for everybody to play at that other level. It's going to be fun."
Embiid was reflective during All-Star Weekend, playing in the event for the fifth time in his career. He expressed happiness just be in Cleveland because COVID-19 prevented him from playing in last season’s game.
Because of injuries, Embiid played in just 31 games his first three seasons, missing the entirety of the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons. In 2014, his brother, Arthur, died in a car accident in Cameroon. Basketball seemed unimportant.
“I really wanted to stop playing basketball and really retire because at that point you just had surgery, and everybody is talking about you're not going to make it or you're never going to play in the league, and, obviously, the loss of my brother was big,” Embiid said. “I wanted to give up. I almost did. It was hard.
"Then the second year you've got to get another surgery. Basically you miss two years in a row, and all these stories coming out every single day. Oh, ‘Joel is whatever, 300 pounds,’ and the media always talking down on you. It was tough. I had to go through a lot. It was very tough, but I'm glad I just kept pushing through with the help of everybody around me. I'm happy to be here.”
In honor of his brother, he named his son Arthur who shared the dais with Embiid during Saturday’s interview session.
“Him being part of it is huge for me because that’s really the reason I’m here,” Embiid said of his 1½-year-old son, adding, “The reason for me having a kid so early in life was for him to also experience that.”
Experiencing an NBA title will be that much more gratifying.
Follow Jeff Zillgitt on Twitter @JeffZillgitt.