Basketball
Joel Embiid Named NBA MVP in Landslide Win Over Jokic and Giannis
by privatebet.com - 2023/05/03
We expected another tight race for the NBA MVP, but Joel Embiid easily came on top. The Philadelphia 76ers star defeated Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo by a landslide to be named the NBA’s most valuable player of the season. Embiid came out victorious with a total of 915 points after garnering 73 first-place votes from a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. The Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic was a distant second with 674 points, followed by the Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo, who finished third with 606 points. Embiid is the first Philadelphia 76ers player to be named MVP in over two decades, since Allen Iverson in 2021. He finished as runner-up to Jokic in MVP voting for the past two seasons and seeing him finally win the league's most coveted individual honor is a welcomed sight for his fans. “It’s been a long time coming. A lot of hard work. I’ve been through a lot. I’m not just talking about basketball. I’m talking about my life. My story. Where I come from. How I got here and what it took for me to be here,” said Embiid in a statement. Embiid is NBA’s leading scorer for a second successive season, averaging 33.1 points per game. He most recently missed Game 1 against the Boston Celtics due to a knee sprain, and it’s still unclear if he would return to the lineup for Game 2.