Sixers' Joel Embiid Named NBA MVP

PHILADELPHIA, PA — After yet another historic season and career-best year in which he redefined what the dominance of a center can look like in modern basketball, Sixers superstar Joel Embiid has won his first NBA Most Valuable Player award.

Embiid's 2023 saw him lead the league in scoring for the second straight year, averaging 33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.7 blocks and 1 steal per game.

To win it, Embiid beat out the two men who have won the award the past four years: Denver's Nikola Jokic in 2022 and 2021, and Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2020 and 2019.

Embiid is just the fifth Sixer to win the prestigious award, and the first in over two decades since Allen Iverson won in 2001. Embiid and A.I. are part of an elite Philly crew that's been crowned the league's best, including Moses Malone (1983), Julius Erving (1981), and Wilt Chamberlain (1966, 1967, 1968).

Embiid is the second Philadelphia athlete to win MVP and in the last three years, joining the Phillies' Bryce Harper, who won in 2021. Three of the four Philly sports teams have had finalists in the past three years, with the Eagles Jalen Hurts coming in second in 2022.

Here's a small selection of Embiid's freakish 2023 stats (and there are many): a Sixers franchise record for most consecutive games with 30 plus points (10), 66 three pointers made (A.I., a point guard, made 72 during his '01 MVP year), and becoming the first center since Shaquille O'Neal to win the scoring title.

Known sometimes simply as The Process, as he's become the sole face of the franchise with the demise and ultimate departure of other key figures like Ben Simmons, Sam Hinkie, and Brett Brown, Embiid has figured as prominently off the court as on it. While the Sixers haven't made it over the hump of the Eastern Conference semifinals under his reign yet, he has led the team to six straight playoff berths, and returned championship-level basketball to south Philadelphia for the first time since Iverson.

A native of Cameroon, the Sixers kickstarted their new era with the selection of the 7-foot-tall Embiid third overall in the 2014 draft.

Embiid's health is again up in the air for the 2023 conference semifinals against the Boston Celtics, but the Sixers have an early 1-0 series lead.