[CamerExcellence] – The Cameroonian pivot of the Sixers ends the 2021 – 2022 regular season in the most beautiful way. By scoring 41 points and 20 rebounds against the Indiana Pacers on April 10, 2022, Joel Embiid became the best scorer of the 2021-2022 regular season, with an average of 30.6 points per game.
This makes him the first 30-point pivot since Moses Malone in 1982. He is also the player with the most 40-10 games in an NBA season (13) since the 1976 merger with the ABA, the NBA’s rival league created in 1967.
With this dazzling performance, many NBA observers and players, like James Harden, MVP of the 2018 regular season, validate Jojo’s season. “I’ve only been here a few weeks, but I’ve already seen his mindset. He wants to win. There are guys who just want to make stats, but he has both. He has that winning mentality and he scores at a very high level. I think he’s set himself up for this to be one of his best years, especially after last season,” he told ESPN.
If Joel Embiid’s MVP award is not in doubt, it remains to be seen whether the Philadelphia Sixers pivot will be unanimously voted as the Warrior Stephen Curry in 2016.
Joel Embid, 28, made NBA history a few months ago. The Philadelphia pivot scored 50 points and recorded 12 rebounds and three blocks. All this in just 27 minutes. For the moment, he is the only player in the NBA to achieve such a performance. The performance was delivered against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night, 19 January 2022. Final score: 123-110 in favour of the Sixers (nickname of the Philadelphia players). The sports websites could not hide their desire to celebrate the native of Cameroon. As Ouest-France.fr testifies. “The Cameroonian from Philadelphia beat Orlando single-handedly…”. Or thedailydunk.com, which lends him strong predatory appetites. “Joel Embiid kills everything in his path…”.
On January 25, 2022, again in Pennsylvania against the Pelicans, the Cameroonian repeated his feat. And always with style and manner.
For four games, the Cameroonian has been accelerating and breaking away from the “too basic” bar of 30 points per game: 50 against Orlando Magic, 40 against the Clippers, 38 against San Antonio and 42 against the Pelicans.
Specialized media are saying that Joel Embiid is gradually moving towards the NBA MVP title.
At NBA, the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award is an honour usually given to a basketball player considering him as the most successful regular season player in the NBA and his team.
NBA MVP list
Embiid, best at his position
His distinctions speak for themselves. The pivot has everything or almost everything to dominate the league. With a height of 2.13 metres and a weight of 127 kg, Joel Embiid has won many awards at his position of Pivot (position 5, located near the basket and reserved for tall people).
In the NBA, he was selected for four consecutive All-Star Games in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021. The All-Star Game is an annual NBA game that pits the best players from the two conferences (West and East) against each other.
Joel Embiid is therefore not part of the constellation of talented players by chance. Since he is also a three-time All-NBA Second Team (among the best players of the regular season) between 2018 and 2021. This time, the selection is made by American and Canadian journalists.
In addition, he was named NBA All-Rookie First Team in 2017.
We cannot forget his title of NBA All-Defensive Second team (best defenders of the regular season) 2017-2018. It is worth remembering that the regular season here begins in late October and ends in early April, for a total of 82 matches. At the University, he was twice voted All-big 12 Defensive Player of the year; All-big 12 Second Team; Big 12 All-Newcomer Team, in 2014.
The process of developing a talent
« The process ». This is how he also calls himself. Joel Embiid had his low points, some very low points before he reached excellence. The senior of three siblings, little Jojo could, according to his parents, have become a doctor. As usual, some stars start with another sport. And in Jojo’s case, it was volleyball. So it was at the age of 15 that his passion for basketball took shape and manifested itself in a talent comparable to an orange ball icon. His entourage nicknamed him Hakeem Olajuwon, Nigerian gold medalist at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
He was spotted at a basketball camp run by Cameroonian Luc Mbah Mouté. That’s how he went to the USA. He will join the Monteverde Academy. From that moment, the machine will start working. He joined several teams, passing through the Christian Academy school. Until the day he graduated from high school. The doors to university are open to him.
In many cases, the best young basketball players in the university are drafted. That is, to join the NBA. He gets injured once. But this does not prevent the Philadelphia Sixers from yielding to the charm of the young Cameroonian. Amount of the contract: $ 148 million. The new nugget is, according to themoney.com, the best Cameroonian player. The year is 2014.
He lost his youngest brother, Arthur Embiid, aged 13, in a traffic accident. Jojo’s debut will be marked by a new injury. He was bedridden for two years. But ‘The Process’ returned to the court in 2016. This was the beginning of his rise. In 2017 he signs a contract with the Sixers. Amount: 148 million dollars.
By Jean Materne Zambo, CamerExcellence
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