Joel Embiid has officially won the NBA MVP and on Wednesday afternoon, the Sixers held a press conference to accept the award.
“It’s amazing. It’s something that I’ve dreamt of and I’ve always wanted. This is just one step to whatever I want to accomplish, which is to win championships. It felt pretty good,” Embiid explained.
“I’ve always said it – I feel like my life is a movie. I started playing basketball at 15. The whole goal when I got a chance to come to the US was to get a degree, and get a job.”
Embiid was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 draft and even after making it to the league, he faced setbacks, including missing the first two seasons of his career with a foot injury.
Joel Embiid: "We went through a lot, whether it was the burner accounts, my guy Sam Hinkie getting kicked out, there's a lot that has happened that we had to go through… It's not just for me: my teammates, the whole organization, the fans, everybody played a big part of it. "
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) May 3, 2023
Joel Embiid is the 2022/23 NBA MVP, the Sixers announce: pic.twitter.com/wt4bmFBzle
— Chris W. Crouse (@ChrisWCrouse) May 2, 2023
Joel Embiid Understands MVP Formula
Embiid has had his eye on the award for quite some time and he always saw the connection between winning the award, winning games, and how much his teammates mattered.
“On the offensive end, I just do what I have to do,” Embiid said back in 2021 after a 50-point performance. “…[If] you’re not winning games, you can’t be in the MVP conversation. We’ve been doing a lot of that and I’m thankful for my teammates for helping me.”
Embiid was the runner-up in the MVP race during the 2020-21 season as well as the 2021-22 season, losing each award to Nikola Jokic (who was just the 13th player to win the MVP award in back-to-back seasons).
“I don’t want to win this award because it’s the MVP. I want to win it because it means a lot to me,” Embiid said on Wednesday. “I went through a lot. It’s a validation that everything you went through is paying off.”
