‘What else can I do?’: Joel Embiid swerves MVP snub but remains a Philly hero

The Philadelphia 76ers’ slim chances of winning their first NBA title in 39 years pretty much cratered Tuesday when they were blown out by the Miami Heat in the fifth game of their second-round playoff series. The Sixers need to beat the Heat two in a row just to survive.

Then the Sixers would need to win eight more games over two series for the title. That hardly seems likely, given the way they wobbled in the dismal 35-point loss to Miami, even with Joel Embiid, the banged-up superstar center who has had the best season in his career.

Word had leaked out Monday through ESPN that Embiid had lost to Denver’s Nikola Jokić for the second straight year in balloting for the league’s Most Valuable Player award, and Embiid tried to swat the rejection away by saying he would really rather win a title. And yet …

“I wonder what else I have to do to win it,” Embiid said in a news conference after Tuesday’s game, “and to me, it’s like, at this point it’s like, it’s whatever. It’s all about focusing, not that I wasn’t focused on the bigger picture, but you know, it’s really time to really put all my energy into the bigger picture, which is to win the whole thing.”

It should be no surprise that the sports fans in Philadelphia have not taken the leaked news well, no less since the award was conferred on Wednesday night. Jokić’s impressive season notwithstanding, this, to them, appears to be the latest example of the Most Valuable Player trophy not being won by the actual most valuable player.

“Jokić is a peerless offensive player,” the columnist Marcus Hayes, who is far from a homer, wrote in Tuesday’s Philadelphia Inquirer. “He’s a better passer and shooter than Embiid. Embiid is close – more power, better moves to the basket, better