Even though the two have a tendency to jaw with each other when the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers play, Kevin Durant seems to have nothing but respect for Joel Embiid as a player.
In fact, the future Hall of Famer says that if he had a vote for NBA MVP, it would go to Embiid, with a caveat:
"He led the league in scoring, double-doubles, his team won 50 games this year," KD said. "Numbers are incredible, great year, but you can close your eyes and pick any one of the top six or seven guys and have a good MVP this year. It shows how talented our league is from top to bottom right now."
Whether it's Embiid, Nikola Jokic, or anyone else in that group of elite players vying for the award, KD thinks it's going to come down to preference, because there's no clear front-runner.
"I'm not huge into narratives and I feel like that's the main factor in winning MVP, because when you look at numbers and team records, they're all pretty incredible," Durant said. "When you have four or five guys like that, it's tough to pick an MVP, because it's probably going to fit which story fits best for you as a voter."
Hopefully, he says, that doesn't work against Embiid.
"It's unfortunate, there's a lot of players that have been controlled by their narrative. Some of it has been because of the player, some of it just has been because of the perception of other people about that player," KD said. "In Joel's case, more people just like Giannis and Jokic. It's as simple as that. They just prefer them more than Embiid's personality or his story, I guess."
After finishing runner-up to Jokić in MVP voting a year ago, Embiid won the NBA scoring title in 2021-22, averaging 30.6 points per game, while also adding in 11.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists per contest.
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