Joel Embiid: MVP is validation, but NBA title is still the goal

BOSTON (AP) —Joel Embiid finally said it: Winning the NBA’s Most Valuable Playeraward has been a dream ever since he belatedly started playingbasketball.

“I know I’vealways said I don’t care, but it was just for you guys to leave mealone,” the 76ers center said Wednesday, a day after hewasvotedto his first MVPafter two runner-up finishes. “I do carein the way that it validates everything, all the work that you’veput in. And to be sitting here is just amazing.”

A native ofCameroon who didn’t pick up the sport until he was 15, Embiid wasthe 76ers’ reward for tanking their way to the No. 3 overall pickin the 2014 draft. But he missed two full seasons with footinjuries, leaving Philadelphia fans to wait while general managerSam Hinkie insisted that they “Trust the Process.”

Injuriescontinue to keep Embiid off the court to this day: HemissedGame1 of Philadelphia’s second-round series against Bostonandis officially listed as doubtful with a sprained kneeforGame2. Embiid said “it’s a possibility” he would play on Wednesdaynight.

“Obviously,it’s earlier than what we thought, considering what I had. We’rejust going to take day by day and see how it feels,” he said aftersome light shooting on Wednesday morning. “It’s a possibility, justlike it was a possibility in the first game. Obviously, I want toplay.”

Comparing hislife to a movie, Embiid said he originally took up basketball,thinking it might be a pathway to a college degree and a decentjob. It earned him a scholarship to Kansas, where he wanted toredshirt as a freshman and stay for five years. When coach BillSelf told him there was no need, and he could be the No. 1 overalldraft pick, Embiid didn’t believe him.

“I didn’tthink basketball would take me anywhere,” he said.

“Theprobability of someone like me, who started playing basketball at15, to get the chance to be the MVP of the league is I would say isprobably ‘negative zero,’” he said.

“We don’thave a lot of opportunities to get to this point, in Africa ingeneral. But improbable doesn’t mean impossible,” he said. “You canaccomplish anything you set your mind to as long as you believe init, and you keep working hard. Anything can happen.”

Embiid, 29,averaged 33.1 points to win his second straight scoring title,averaged 10.2 rebounds and tied a career high with 4.2 assists pergame. He received 73 of the 100 first-place votes for the MVP, withtwo-time winner Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets second and theMilwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo third.

Whileacknowledging that the MVP was important to him, Embiid said he isstill focused on his primary goal: winning an NBA title. The Sixershave not made it out of the second round of the playoffs sincereaching the NBA Finals in 2001.

“I don’t wantto win this award because it’s just the MVP. I want to win itbecause it means a lot to me (because) I went through a lot, andthat’s just a validation of that. Everything — the sacrifices,everything you went through — it’s paying off in some way,” hesaid. “Obviously, winning the championship is going to be waybetter. We now have that opportunity. But I’m just competitive. Iwant it all. I want to win everything that I can get my hands on.And everybody around me knows that.

“It doesn’tmatter if it’s about basketball or in life, or whatever. I want towin everything,” he said. “I want to be first.”