Sixers' Joel Embiid says MVP is 'a validation of everything' - ESPN

BOSTON — Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid said the chances of someone like him — who started playing basketball in his native Cameroon at the age of 15 — winning the NBA's Most Valuable Player award are «probably negative zero,» but that it is proof that «improbable doesn't mean impossible.»

Embiid was named the winner of the league's top individual honor Tuesday night, claiming 73 out of 100 first place votes to finish ahead of Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, who had beaten Embiid for the award in each of the past two seasons.

«It's hard to win this league; it's hard to be successful in this league,» Embiid said after Philadelphia's shootaround at TD Garden ahead of Wednesday's Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. «There's a reason why these are the best basketball players in the world. And to be sitting here and feel like I won something as far as the Most Valuable Player is great. But then again, it's also part of my story because I've always felt like I was a role model — especially to my Cameroonian people and my African people — and I feel like, just looking at my story, they can look at it and be like, 'Wow, he did it.'

»Probably the probability of someone like me, starting playing basketball at 15, to get the chance to be the MVP of the league is, I'd say, probably negative zero.… We don't have a lot of opportunities back in Africa in general to get to this point. But improbable doesn't mean impossible, and you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. As long as you believe in it, and you know keep walking hard, anything can happen."

After being particularly disappointed over not being MVP last season, Embiid repeatedly said throughout the 2022-23 season that it wasn't something he was