There was a time when it felt like we’d by no means get to see how good Joel Embiid could possibly be within the NBA. The top of Embiid’s one-year faculty profession at Kansas was minimize brief by a stress fracture in his again, and as he entered the 2014 NBA Draft he needed to instantly have surgical procedure on a damaged navicular bone in his proper foot.
Embiid most likely would have went No. 1 general if he was wholesome. As a substitute, the Cavs picked Andrew Wiggins first, the Bucks took Jabari Parker at No. 2, and Embiid fell to Sam Hinkie’s Philadelphia 76ers at No. 3 general.
Again and foot accidents are terrifying for a 7-foot, 280-pound middle — NBA historical past will let you know that a lot. Embiid by no means misplaced confidence in himself, although. Simply after he was drafted, Embiid went on Twitter and predicted he would quickly win MVP.
On Tuesday, Embiid’s MVP dream lastly got here true. He instantly went again to Twitter and quoted his outdated tweet with the phrase “SPOKE IT INTO EXISTENCE.”
What a time capsule that is. Embiid’s tweet was so way back that Stephen Curry hadn’t even grow to be a famous person but. Curry’s run would occur throughout what ought to have been Embiid’s rookie season, however in fact the Sixers large man didn’t play.
Embiid missed his first two years with foot accidents. He opened up in regards to the darkish instances firstly of his profession throughout his MVP press convention:
Embiid completed in second place in MVP voting the final two years behind Nikola Jokic. Jokic was bidding to grow to be the league’s first three-peat winner since Larry Chook.
The Nuggets and Sixers are each up of their second spherical sequence within the 2023 NBA Playoffs to this point. May we see Jokic vs. Embiid within the NBA Finals? We’d like it.
After what Embiid has been by means of, successful MVP is an unimaginable achievement. The truth that he spoke it into existence makes it even higher.
