Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (Cameroon, 213 cm) was selected as the MVP of the regular league for the 2022-2023 season of the NBA.
The NBA Secretariat announced on the 3rd (Korean time), “As a result of the media panel’s voting, Embiid received a total of 915 points, including 73 out of 100 first place votes, and became the regular league MVP.”
The second place is Nicola Jokic (Denver) whoㅋㅋㅋ벳 received 674 points including 15 first place votes.
Embiid played 66 games in the regular league in the 2022-2023 season, averaging 33.1 points (1st), 10.2 rebounds (10th) and 4.2 assists.
Philadelphia recorded 54 wins and 28 losses in the regular league, finishing third in the Eastern Conference and advancing to the second round of the playoffs.
This is the first time Embiid has become the regular league MVP.
In 2019 and 2020, Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee) became the regular league MVP, and Jokic won the award in the last two years.
Embiid came in second after Jokic in MVP voting for the last two years in a row.
Embiid, who was selected by Philadelphia with the third overall pick in the 2014 draft, made his debut in the 2016-2017 season due to injury, and since then has built a career, including six All-Stars and two scoring champions.
Embiid is the first Philadelphia player to become MVP in the regular season since Allen Iverson in 2001.
Born in Yaounde, Cameroon, in 1994, Embiid also obtained US citizenship last year.
In the NBA, a foreign national player has been the regular league MVP for the last 5 years in a row.
Antetokounmpo is Greek and Jokic is Serbian. The American player who recently won the NBA regular league MVP is James Harden (Philadelphia) in 2018.
This is the first time that a non-American player has been named the regular league MVP for five consecutive years.
Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria) became the first non-American regular league MVP in 1994, Steve Nash (Canada) in 2005 and 2006, and Dirk Nowitzki (Germany) in 2007 were selected as regular league MVPs.
Embiid is the second African national player to win the regular league MVP this year after Olajuwon in 1994.
Last year and this year, the MVP candidates were Jokic, Embiid, and Antetokounmpo, all made up of non-Americans.