Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Embiid as MVP not a far-fetched concept
Embiid as MVP not a totally crazy idea
WASHINGTON » Along that dark path from tanking to celebrating, the 76ers knew there would be turning points. Some would be sharp. Some would be subtle. One, at least, would be loud.
Not that it signaled an official end to the lunacy the other night at the Wells Fargo Center, and not that anything chanted in an NBA arena means too much, but there it was, a change in the fans’ script.
Joel Embiid was holding the ball and eying the rim, preparing for a foul shot. As he had for much of two seasons, Embiid would be serenaded.
No, it would not be the customary yodel of “Trust the process … trust the process …” Instead, it would be “M-V-P, M-V-P, M-V-P.” And beyond the proof that Philadelphia fans could scream out letters not including E, A and G, it was evidence that they felt the processing was behind and the rewards were due.
Brett Brown heard it, agreeing with every consonant. And if he were up in the stands, that might have been him, contorting his body into M, V and P shapes, just for inspiration.
Joel Embiid for Most Valuable Player? That’s a cause, Brown believes, worth supporting.
“For me it is,” he said Sunday, before a game against the Washington Wizards. “I am president of the Joel Embiid for MVP campaign.”
There are still 27 games before the ballots are due. There may even be a load-management day or two tossed in, just to complicate the whole thing. It’s February, not April. And the Sixers have more important things to worry about winning than individual plaques. They’re called games. But while paying
customers often chant without the obligation of context, they don’t grass-root an MVP campaign every year. They may not have done so since Allen Iverson, the 2001 MVP, was cupping his ear, all the better to capture the echoes.
“Joel Embiid definitely has the size of the big players who played when I played,” said Scott Brooks, the Wizards’ coach, a Sixer in the early ‘90s. “He also has the ability to step out and make threes. And they weren’t able to do that. He can score inside and outside. He has guard skills. He can put the ball on the floor. He can cross over. He has a behind-the-back. He has upand-unders. He has everything. Shot fakes.
“He is as skilled as any big that has ever played the game.”
That is the foundation for the campaign. Upon that, there must be a stack of achievements. The Sixers having pushed deep enough into Eastern Conference
relevance to begin a search for why, Embiid would be the leading answer. And after going for 28 and 14 in a Saturday victory over Orlando, Embiid was averaging 23.9 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.8 blocks. According to the Sixers’ research, and they are always flush with scientists, only Bob McAdoo, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (five times), Shaquille O’Neal (twice) and Bob Lanier (twice) had ever finished a season with as full a stat line. All can be considered basketball royalty.
So Embiid is the most skilled big man in the league, has provided the core-required statistics. He also has helped turn the Sixers into a playoff team. And he could even add to his legend before the season is over.
“I’m definitely getting better,” he said. “I feel that the game is becoming easier for me. That was what I was hoping for.” As he has been throughout the season,
Embiid has thoughtfully provided a scale with which to judge his production. “The last time, I was at 81 percent,” he said. “This time, I would say about 87 percent.” And not 86, either.
Consider, then, the campaign on. And as the Sixers fight through a pennant race, figure the chants to multiply. Embiid, though, will have to fight through a crowded field. All season, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks has been a strong MVP candidate. He was averaging 27.8 points, 10.4 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.3 blocks. And then there are the eternal front-runners, former MVPs Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry and LeBron James. All are having excellent seasons for teams as good as or better than the Sixers.
And wouldn’t it be a hidden tack-on fee for the Sixers’ yearslong, wait-until-later arrogance
if the 10 games Embiid missed for whatever reason this season would cost him at the polls?
But he would not be out of place with Iverson, Moses Malone, Julius Erving and Wilt Chamberlain among Sixers who have been the NBA’s MVP.
“We said all along that he is such a smorgasbord of skills,” Brown said. “Then, every game, something else comes out that makes you say ‘Wow.’ The Eurostep. The thunder dunk. And the thing that pleases me most is his commitment to defense. He is a fierce competitor. There is a tenacity to him. He’s got a disposition to defend.”
Joel Embiid has been what the process promised to provide.
If nothing else, that is something worth a good, sustained yell.