A vindicating moment for The Process and Philadelphia 76ers fans, as Sixers center Joel Embiid has been named the 2023 NBA Most Valuable Player.
Embiid received 73 of the 100 first place votes and had 915 total points to Nikola Jokic's 674, winning rather comfortably. Embiid finished as the runner-up to Jokic in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
Embiid becomes the fifth player in Sixers history to win the award, joining Wilt Chamberlain (1966-1968), Julius Erving (1981), Moses Malone (1983) and Allen Iverson (2001).
"It's been a long time coming, a lot of hard work," Embiid said on TNT on Tuesday night. "I've been through a lot and I'm not just talking about basketball, I'm talking about everything, life. My story, how I got here and what it took for me to be here. It feels good. I don't know what to say, it's amazing."
Embiid, 29, averaged a career high 33.1 points per game during the regular season, securing his second straight scoring title. Embiid became the first center to win back-to-back scoring titles since Bob McAdoo won three straight from 1973-1976.
Embiid improved his shooting from pretty much everywhere on the floor this season, shooting 54.8-percent from the field and having a 65.5-percent true shooting percentage, both career highs.
Embiid played 66 games (the second most of his career) and led the Sixers to 54 wins, their most since the 2000-01 season when they reached the NBA Finals behind Allen Iverson.
Embiid and the Sixers currently have a 1-0 series lead over the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals, despite Embiid missing the last two playoff games as he continues to recover from a sprained knee.
This a well deserved award for a lifelong Sixer and a man who is called "The Process," symbolizing all of the craziness the franchise has been through over the last decade-plus.
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The Cameroon native has been through a lot throughout his basketball career, and life, for that matter. Embiid did not begin playing basketball until he was teenager, eventually moving to the United States as a 16-year-old to follow a dream of becoming a pro basketball player.
After one year at Kansas, the Sixers selected Embiid with the third overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft. He underwent foot surgery that June and missed his entire rookie season. Months later, in October of 2014, Embiid's brother Arthur was killed in a car crash in Cameroon. Then, Embiid suffered a setback in his recovering process, requiring a second surgery on his foot, and devastatingly missed his entire second season as well.
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Embiid made his NBA debut in October of 2016 and never looked back. He is now a six-time All-Star, a four-time All-NBA second-teamer (first-team likely coming this year), a three-time All-NBA defensive teamer, a two-time scoring champ, and a one-time MVP.
He is a future Hall Of Famer.
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