Hakeem Olajuwon questions Joel Embiid’s game, while praising Nikola Jokic as ‘The One’
Hakeem Olajuwon recently talked about the best two centers in the league Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic (in that order) with Sports Illustrated and had some pretty odd opinions to say about the two elite players.
Hakeem Olajuwon Praises Jokic, Criticizes Embiid
Hakeem Olajuwon on Embiid
“He’s got all the moves, but leveraging the moves is different. Why would he be shooting threes?”
Hakeem Olajuwon on Jokic
“His shot, his fakes, they are very difficult to time. You don’t know when he’s faking and when it’s real. He has tricks! He’s the one”
At his height, Joel Embiid has been an above-averaging three point shooter. This season, he’s shooting 35.2% from behind the arc while averaging 33.6 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 4.2 assists.
In fact, he’s close to being eligible for the all-time PPG leaderboards, and he’s set to become the all-time leader in P/36.
It’s becoming comical how much Joel Embiid gets disrespected. It is however, pretty interesting that no matter where you look, there’s always something to criticize with Joel Embiid.
It’s also pretty evident that even the greatest of NBA players fail to realize that Embiid can play almost anywhere and guard 1-through-5 while essentially playing position-less basketball. Embiid is an unstoppable force and good luck stopping him, even more so if you leave him open behind the three point line.
Read more: Joel Embiid continues to be the best troll ever >>
Jokic is shooting 37.2% from behind the arc, just a 2% difference, while Embiid attempts 0.8 more threes per game than Jokic. If we are being totally honest with each other, I haven’t seen Jokic do anything outside of passing better than Embiid on a basketball court. And yes, both centers are having great seasons and both centers are great players. It shouldn’t have to be said but all the narrative around NBA in the media these days is pitting two great players against each other. Extremely annoying.
Whatever.
The Sixers are playing their best basketball of the 2022-23 season and have now won eight out of their last 10 games. With the Brooklyn Nets losing three straight, the Sixers moved up in the rankings to third in the Eastern Conference at 28-16. Their tour of the West continues tomorrow night against the Portland Trailblazers.
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