Joel Embiid isn’t a starter for the All-Star game, but he is having another outstanding season for the Philadelphia 76ers in 2022-23. The big man is averaging a league-leading 33.8 PPG to go with 10.0 RPG and had arguably his best performance of the season, considering the circumstances, on Saturday.
With the Sixers taking on the Denver Nuggets, Embiid went head-to-head with Nikola Jokic in a battle between the top 2 MVP candidates in the last 2 years and he outplayed the Serbian. Embiid finished with 47 points, 18 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks as the Sixers won 126-119. After the game, he was asked about not being named as an All-Star starter, and here’s what he had to say.
Joel Embiid was asked another question on not being named an All-Star starter, suggested he is not well-liked. "I guess I'm an asshole. But it’s cool, I keep being me, I keep being an asshole, and I keep trolling, and if people don’t like it, that’s their problem." pic.twitter.com/GHYykdSDdL
— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) January 28, 2023
“I was not surprised. I think it’s what Doc mentioned, that I’m not well-liked and that’s cool. I don’t know if it’s because I troll a lot, or that I guess I’m an a*****e. But it’s cool, I keep being me, I keep being an a*****e, and I keep trolling, and if people don’t like it, that’s their problem.”
“But like I said, it all goes back to winning. All these whatever, when you look at how many times he was an All-Star, they’re not going to say he was a starter this many times. Which, having been a starter the last five years, it is kind of disrespectful, and I don’t think anybody has had a better year than me. But like I said, you focus on the right things, everything is going to go well for you.”
While you would normally brush off claims from a player about not being well-liked, there is probably some truth to it here. Brian Windhorst had stated previously that media voters do not like Embiid, although, to be fair to them, he did finish 3rd in media voting for the All-Star game, so it isn’t like they totally snubbed him.
Doc Rivers Wants Changes In The All-Star Voting Format
With Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, and Jayson Tatum vying for those 3 frontcourt starting spots, a deserving candidate was going to be snubbed inevitably. These 4 aren’t going to slow down in the coming years either, so one of them will keep getting snubbed.
One way to avoid that would be to make the voting positionless, which is what Doc Rivers has been advocating for. He stated that it should just be the 5 best players being the starters, and it is hard to argue against that in this era of positionless basketball. There is no indication yet though that the NBA is seriously considering making this change.
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