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Joel Embiid a finalist for NBA Most Valuable Player award

The other finalists are reigning MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Sixers center Joel Embiid is guarded by Raptors forward OG Anunoby during Game 1.
Sixers center Joel Embiid is guarded by Raptors forward OG Anunoby during Game 1.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

Joel Embiid is one of three finalists for the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award, the league announced Sunday night.

The other finalists are reigning MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo, who won back-to-back MVPs in 2019 and 2020. All three players compiled gaudy and sometimes historic statistics while anchoring team success this season, creating one of the most competitive MVP races in recent memory.

Embiid, who finished second in voting in 2020-21, led the league in scoring with 30.6 points per game while also averaging 11.7 rebounds, a career-best 4.2 assists and 1.5 blocks per game. He was the first center to top the NBA in points per game since Shaquille O’Neal in 2000, and the first at that position to average more than 30 points per game in a season since Moses Malone in 1981-82.

Embiid also played in a career-high 68 out of 82 regular-season games, and led the Sixers to 51 wins during a season that included the tumultuous Ben Simmons saga and blockbuster trade for All-Star guard James Harden.

Jokic averaged 27.1 points, 13.8 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game for a Nuggets team that finished with 48 wins while playing without its second- and third-best players, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., for the vast majority of the season. Jokic also became the first player in NBA history to total 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 500 assists in a single season.

Antetokounmpo finished just behind Embiid in scoring (29.9 points per game) and added 11.6 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game for the defending-champion Bucks, who amassed 51 victories as the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed. He became the first player to average at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in four separate seasons.

Ballots were due the day after the regular season concluded, meaning voting does not take postseason performance into account. The winner will be announced sometime during the playoffs.

Sixers second-year guard Tyrese Maxey, a contender for the league’s Most Improved Player award, was not a finalist for that honor.