When Joel Embiid finished second in the MVP race, he wasn’t worried. Continue to trust the process.
Now this process has paid off.
After finishing second in back-to-back seasons, the 2022-23 Philadelphia 76ers center was named the KIA NBA MVP Award during TNT’s Tuesday night pre-Tip Game 2 show of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the New York Knicks and Miami Heat.
Trust the process:76ers vs. Celtics: James Harden scores 45 points in Game 1 victory over Joel Embiid
Embiid was a finalist for the league’s Most Valuable Individual Award along with Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.
He received 73 first-place votes while Jokic and Antetokounmpo received 15 and 12, respectively.
Embiid, who finished runner-up to Jokic the last two seasons, claimed his second consecutive title, scoring 33.1 points in 66 games. Last season, Embiid averaged 30.6 points in 68 games.
Center had one of his best seasons in 2022-23 with career highs in points per game and field goal percentage (54.8%), he also averaged 10.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.7 blocks and 1.0 steals. Shoots 85.7% on 11.7 free throw attempts per game.
He was a powerhouse on offense and defense, leading the Sixers to a No. 3 offense and No. 8 defense—one of three teams in the top 10 in both categories.
Embiid essentially closed on the prize with a dominant 52-point, 13-rebound performance to beat the Boston Celtics during the final week of the regular season.
The Sixers finished 54-28 for the third seed in the East and the third best record in the league.
Embiid marks the fifth consecutive season that an international player has won the award, after Antetokounmpo in 2019 and 2020 and Jokic in 2021 and 2022. A native of Cameroon, Embiid is the second player of African descent to win the MVP award, joining Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon Player of the Year in 1984.
Embiid became the fifth Sixer to win the award, joining Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, Moses Malone and Allen Iverson.
The three notable individual league award winners were announced in April, and the selection category featured household names.
Jokic repeated his role as last year’s MVP, with Embiid runner-up and Antetokounmpo third. The Nuggets center would have become the first player to win three consecutive MVP awards since Hall of Famer Larry Bird from 1984 to 1986. Antetokounmpo also won back-to-back MVP awards in 2019 and 2020. Embiid has never won.
