If there’s a player who epitomizes “Always the bridesmaid, never the bride,” it’s Joel Embiid.
He looked like a sure thing to be the No. 1 pick back in 2014, but then a foot injury dropped him to No. 3. He’s suffered excruciating losses—between Kawhi Leonard’s four-bounce game-winner in Toronto during a Game 7 in 2019 and the stunning Game 7 loss to the Hawks in ’20, when Ben Simmons infamously passed up a potential dunk opportunity late—that scuttled golden opportunities to reach the Eastern Conference finals. He’s considerably improved his conditioning and durability, and has even averaged an NBA-high 30.5 points per game since the league’s bubble season in 2020. Still, it resulted only in him finishing as the runner-up to Nikola Jokić for the MVP award each of the past two seasons.
And despite finishing in second for the top award two seasons in a row, he’s also finished on the league’s All-NBA Second Team in back-to-back years because of the rigid positional designations that go into those voting procedures. With that in mind—and with just three frontcourt spots existing for Eastern Conference starters—Embiid, very much an MVP candidate this year as well, was held out of a starting spot Thursday night by Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant and Jayson Tatum. Embiid finished fourth in the East’s frontcourt vote tabulations, again leaving a perennial MVP-caliber talent just outside the limelight.
