The wait for Joel Embiid’s first NBA MVP award is over. The Philadelphia 76ers’ star was unveiled as the Most Valuable Player in the league for the 2022-23 season, edging out Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Although it seemed that this year’s race for the NBA MVP award was going to be close, Embiid ended up getting overwhelming support from the voters. He received 73 first-place votes out of 100 available and finished with 915 points. Jokic was second with 15 first-place votes and 674 points, while Antetokounmpo received 12 first-point votes and a total of 606 points.
Embiid established himself as a perennial MVP candidate in recent years and finished runner-up in the past two seasons. He finally got over the hump this year thanks to a spectacular campaign that saw him average a career-high 33.1 points per game while adding 10.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists. The 29-year-old player also kept his status as one of the best defenders in the league.
“I don’t even know where to start,” Embiid said during his appearance on TNT’s Inside the NBA. “It’s been a long time coming, a lot of hard work. I’ve been through a lot, and I’m not just talking about basketball … I don’t know what to say. It’s amazing.”
After the news was announced, Embiid went on social media to share a post from 2014 in which he ranked predicted himself as the NBA MVP winner.
Joel Embiid becomes the fifth member of the 76ers to win the MVP honors and the first since Allen Iverson (2000-01). The rest of the 76ers’ MVP winners were Julius Erving (1980-81), Moses Malone (1982-83), and Wilt Chamberlain, who won the award three consecutive times between 1966 and 1968.
