Sixers Buzz: Joel Embiid responds to MVP eligibility concerns

The reigning, defending NBA MVP had the opportunity to respond to the new league policies regarding the postseason awards.

To put it bluntly, the Sixers superstar isn’t worried about his recent streak of missing games.

After winning the MVP last season, Embiid has only put on an even more impressive resume in 2023/24 to potentially win the award in back-to-back campaigns. The big fella is currently averaging a league-high 34.8 points per game, 11.8 rebounds, and a career-high 6.2 assists per game.

Also, don’t let a large portion of the NBA media/Twitter dorks distract you from the fact that Embiid is one of the best defenders in the entire league as well.

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In case you’re ever feeling nervous, just remember that Joel Embiid once put icy hot in his eyes before his first AAU Tournament game pic.twitter.com/eYTKcc7qT4

— Philly Scott Van Pelt (@HauserBrett) January 3, 2024

The NBA has implemented a specific ruling called the “Player Participation Policy,” which requires players to play a minimum of 65 games to be considered for any award. With Embiid’s recent absences, he can only miss seven more games for the remainder of the regular season.

Due to Embiid’s history of resting and unfortunate injury luck, it’s fair to be concerned that this new policy hurts his MVP chances. However, Embiid doesn’t seem to care.

“No, I just want to play as many games as possible,” said Embiid, “It’s unfortunate that I missed the past four games, but I can’t control it.”

I said it at the beginning of the season; my goal was, I knew that wasn’t going to happen anyways, but my goal was to try to play 82 games and every single game Sometimes it’s just not possible, sometimes stuff happens, sometimes these guys want you to take a break; any chance that I get that I’m healthy, I’m always going to be out there.”

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To conclude, this is very clearly the NBA deep state trying to intervene because they feel threatened by Joel Embiid and the Sixers. We’ve seen this story before.

While I’m not surprised, I am annoyed because this could lead to a much less deserving player winning the award. But honestly, Sixers fans and Embiid himself will be the first to tell you we’ve got our eyes set on a much bigger prize — the NBA championship.

Mandatory Credit: Getty Images