Another trophy is making its way to South Philly and taking its rightful home right on Broad Street.
Joel “The Process” Embiid was officially awarded the MVP of the NBA last night, and a lot of us think it has been a long time coming.
The big fella had quite the season!
He led the NBA in points per game with 33.1 and brought in 10.2 rebounds per game, which was good for 8th in the league.
Plus, he got his teammates involved, averaging 4.2 assists per game.
Embiid is the fifth Philadelphia 76ers player to win the award with Wilt Chamberlain winning in 1966, 1967, and 1968, Julius “Dr. J” Erving winning in 1981, Moses Malone winning in 1983, and Allen Iverson winning in 2001.
This is the second MVP season I have had the pleasure to watch up close as the public address announcer for the team.
Both seasons were legendary between Iverson’s season in ‘01 and Joel’s this year!
We all know the ‘01 season ended in an NBA Finals appearance, so hopefully, his year is similar, but we actually finish the job this time and win it all!
But that discussion is for another day!
Today is all about Embiid!
It has been a pleasure to watch him grow as a basketball player.
From a guy who couldn’t get on the floor his first two years due to injury to the best player in the world!
Also, off the floor, he is one of the funniest players to be around.
For example, when we were in London in 2018, I snagged a funny photo of him imitating Dikembe Mutumbo’s finger wave!
That’s just one small moment that sticks out of him as a person.
I look forward to doing his intro every night because I know it is going to be the loudest the crowd gets during the pregame night in and night out.
Plus, I can’t forget our pregame ritual where I give him his first pass of the night and then after getting a feel for the game ball, he passes it back to me so I can give it to the referee!
It is so cool to see all his teammates react and give him his flowers!
He deserves them all!
But I’m sure his focus right now isn’t even on winning the award, it’s on trying to get healthy for his team and working towards a championship!
So let’s get it done, big fella!
Congrats!
Joel Embiid and Dikembe Mutumbo
Photo by: Matt Cord
