Since entering the NBA, Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid didn’t shy from showing his competitiveness. This continued on Thursday during Embiid’s conference call interview ahead of NBA Africa 2018.
The 24-year-old All-Star was asked what he thinks about the fact that his 76ers couldn’t get any big free agents in the offseason. He didn’t take much time in responding the question but instead discussed his MVP ambitions.
“I don’t think it matters, big free agent or not.” – said Embiid. “My goal going into the offseason was to get better. I want to win the MVP. I feel like at the end of the day it might be an individual award, but when I play better, the team also does. I feel like if I’m an MVP candidate or if I win the MVP, that means we are on another level.“
“When my season ended, there was a lot of talk about adding guys. I literally did not really care because I want to get better,” – he added. “I want to be better than those guys that were mentioned if I’m not already better than them. That was my message, just going into the offseason, finally the first one healthy and able to do whatever I want. That was my goal regardless.“
Elsewhere in the interview, Joel Embiid also discussed the goals he wants to achieve with the team, and once again he set the bar high. According to him, 76ers aimed for the NBA Finals last year, and the goal stays the same. We can’t say that it wouldn’t be entertaining to see them there.
After his first three seasons in the NBA were plagued by injuries, Embiid finally managed to stay healthy during the better part of 2017-18 season. He played career-high 63 games in the regular season while averaging 22.9 points, 11.0 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.8 blocks per game.
