{"id":72181,"date":"2024-04-07T10:25:45","date_gmt":"2024-04-07T14:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=72181"},"modified":"2024-04-07T10:25:45","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T14:25:45","slug":"reigning-mvp-joel-embiid-slams-toxic-nba-award-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/07\/reigning-mvp-joel-embiid-slams-toxic-nba-award-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"MVP Winner Slams \u2018Toxic\u2019 NBA Award Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, Philadelphia 76ers superstar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/embiijo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joel Embiid<\/a> made <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/01\/sixers-mvps-potential-injury-return-date-revealed\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">his long-awaited return<\/a> to the hardwood after missing two months with a meniscus injury. The extended absence \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/03\/sixers-joel-embiid-transparent-injury-took-toll-mentally-sidelined-2-months\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">took a toll<\/a>\u201d on him mentally and emotionally. The Sixers fell into a hole themselves, falling to eighth in the Eastern Conference standings with him sidelined.<\/p>\n<p>However, there\u2019s been at least one silver lining.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m happy I&#8217;m not in the [MVP] conversation,\u201d Embiid admits.<\/p>\n<h2>Joel Embiid Slams \u2018Toxic\u2019 MVP Conversation<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cYou know, that conversation has been toxic for a long time,\u201d Embiid says, explaining his unexpected stance on MVP talks. \u201cBut I&#8217;ll be honest, this year has been kind of boring. This year, there&#8217;s not enough toxicity going around. It&#8217;s pretty fun and at some point, it&#8217;s pretty bad too. I&#8217;m glad I&#8217;m nowhere near to that.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The reigning MVP with some interesting comments on the current MVP race \ud83d\udc40 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TF17491NmX\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/TF17491NmX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBCSPhilly\/status\/1776088184230723753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 5, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Many descriptives can be thrown at Embiid when discussing his personality, but his competitive drive is one of the most discussed. A student of the Black Mamba Academy, Embiid has sought to mirror the late <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bryanko01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kobe Bryant<\/a>\u2019s spirit. It\u2019s for this reason that Embiid\u2019s comments are most surprising.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from that, Embiid has been an MVP finalist for the past three seasons, winning the award in 2023. His start to the 2023-24 season had him looking like he could repeat. He may have remained in the MVP conversation if there wasn&#8217;t a minimum game requirement, averaging 34.7 points, 11.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.7 blocks, and 1.2 steals per game.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, Embiid is correct in his concern about MVP discourse. Accolades and agendas often go hand in hand. Whether it\u2019s fans, media members, or athletes, a player winning or failing to win any given award is used as confirmation bias.<\/p>\n<p>In the case of Embiid, these last three seasons have seen people trying to determine if he or Denver Nuggets international star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jokicni01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikola Jokic<\/a> was the superior center. Embiid has posted dominant numbers in the regular season and has a larger two-way impact. Jokic emerged as the better player due to his efficiency, playmaking, and postseason performances.<\/p>\n<p>The comparisons between the two are to be expected since they\u2019re marquee talents who play the same position. However, the fan bases of the two players and their teams engage in baseless arguments that ignore the merits of one to praise the abilities of the other. It\u2019s, in a word, toxic.<\/p>\n<h3>All Deserving Candidates<\/h3>\n<p>At this juncture, Embiid says his focus is \u201con getting back healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, he\u2019s paying attention to the MVP race, and believes they\u2019re \u201call great candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey all deserve to win,\u201d Embiid considers. \u201cIt&#8217;s just unfortunate that only one person has to win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now a two-time MVP, Jokic is the favorite to win the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/31\/nba-awards-end-season-predictions-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">2024 NBA MVP Award<\/a>. Oklahoma City Thunder playmaker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gilgesh01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> has been among the favorites for the award all season. Dallas Mavericks sensation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka Doncic<\/a> has been picking up steam as an MVP candidate since the All-Star Break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid made his long-awaited return to the hardwood after missing two months with a meniscus injury. The extended absence \u201ctook a toll\u201d on him mentally and emotionally. The Sixers fell into a hole themselves, falling to eighth in the Eastern Conference standings with him sidelined. However, there\u2019s been at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":72188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1608,20,62,3,22],"tags":[267,1143,72],"class_list":["post-72181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-76ers","category-basketball","category-nuggets","category-nba","category-news","category-thunder","tag-joel-embiid","tag-nba-awards","tag-nikola-jokic"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}