The Philadelphia 76ers survived Game 1 without Joel Embiid last night. Making their way to Boston for the 2nd Round Matchup, the Sixers went in without their MVP candidate due to the injury he suffered in Game 3 against the Nets. Tonight Embiid was announced as the 2022-23 NBA MVP on TNT, and well, Ernie Johnson couldn’t help but shoot his shot about Joel’s availability.
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After a solid 2022-23 regular season, there was very little doubt that Embiid was the deserving MVP candidate. He’d finished 2nd to Nikola Jokic for two consecutive seasons. This year, he kicked it up a notch. Averaging 33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 4.2 assists in 66 Games, Embiid pushed the Sixers to the 3rd seed in the East.
The TNT crew announced that Embiid won the MVP honors ahead of the Knicks-Heat Game 2.
Ernie Johnson tried to get insider information from Joel Embiid
Right before Game 1 of the Sixers-Celtics series, Shams Charania of The Athletic took to Twitter to talk about Embiid’s injury.
There was no official announcement about how serious the injury is, and the common consensus was that Embiid would play Game 2 wearing a knee brace. However, that was before James Harden‘s 45-point game-winning performance. People now assume the Sixers can rest Embiid for one more game, at least till they head home for Game 3.
After announcing Embiid as the MVP, Ernie Johnson tried asking him about his uncertain Game 2 status. He asked,
“Are we going to see you in Game 2?”
Joel Embiid laughed and replied,
“We shall see.”
It was worth a shot Ernie. If Embiid revealed anything, you could’ve beaten Shams or Woj with a breaking news bomb of your own xD
Embiid credits Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley for forcing a change in his game
Back in 2020, the Sixers got swept by the Celtics in the first round. It was a humiliating loss in the Bubble, and Joel Embiid heard all about it from Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley. Turns out, that was the moment Embiid decided to change it all.
When Shaq congratulated Embiid, Joel told him that it was then that he changed his approach.
Since then, we saw 2 MVP caliber seasons from Joel, and then finally an MVP season this year. We hope he returns to the court soon and takes his MVP campaign further by taking the Sixers to their first Conference Finals since Allen Iverson in 2001.
