A month ago, The Ringer’s Bill Simmons took heat from a number of NBA players—most notably Draymond Green—for his comments on Rockets rookie Jalen Green’s candidacy for the league’s All-Rookie team. Now, 76ers star Joel Embiid has weighed in on what appeared to be a dormant controversy.
“And I put [Pelicans forward Herbert Jones] first-team all-rookie. I put him over Jalen Green,” Simmons said on the April 13 episode of his podcast. “F--- Jalen Green. I don’t care you’re scoring 40 points and your team’s 19–60. Congratulations. I’m sorry, I like winning players.”
Simmons has gone on to clarify that it wasn’t intended as a shot at Green personally, and that he is a fan of the guard, but that he disagreed with his All-Rookie team candidacy.
In his takedown of Simmons, Draymond Green raised the issue of voters like Simmons deciding which players make All-NBA teams, which have an impact on potential future earnings for others. To qualify for a lucrative “supermax” contract, which is worth 35% of a team’s salary cap in year one and can escalate from there, players must reach specific criteria, with All-NBA honors being the most common pathway.
Embiid echoed this issue with the voting body when asked about his controversial reported NBA MVP loss to Nikola Jokić this season. Via Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice:
“But to me, the only thing I’ll say about these awards is that, until, I don’t know how to explain it, I go back to what I heard on a podcast. Bill Simmons basically saying, it sounded like he had a grudge against somebody saying ‘F Jalen Green.’ If you’re going to allow these type of people to vote on these awards, that’s not fair,” Embiid said.
“What if Jalen Green was in a position to earn a supermax, or I don’t know, an All-Star appearance? You’ve got someone sounding like that and has a lot of power, he can sway a lot of other media members and you got someone saying that type of stuff, I don’t think it’s fair, I don’t think it’s okay.”
After two years of falling short in the MVP race, Embiid appears resigned to the fact that he only has so much control of the proceedings, saying, “It’s almost like at this point, it’s whatever. Whatever happens happens.”
“I guess every year it’s all about whatever you guys decide, whatever fits the narrative as far as who’s going to win,” he added.
Embiid averaged 30.6 points and 11.7 rebounds for the 51–31 76ers, the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. Jokić will reportedly take home his second straight MVP after averaging 27.1 points, 13.8 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game for the 48–34 Nuggets, who finished sixth in the Western Conference.
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