For years, the title of the best player in the NBA was held by the Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James. But times have changed now and LeBron is still one of the best players in the league, he is just not the best in the eyes of many fans.
Instead, the likes of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, etc. are competing for that title. With Steph injured as of now, the race for that label arguably comes down to Embiid, Giannis, KD, and Jokic.
Speaking of which, Embiid recently made an appearance on the JJ Redick podcast. Although the primary objective of the podcast was to get a comment from Embiid on his recent altercation with Durant, we found another great thing in the video.
Usually, Redick is spot on with his takes and rankings, but this time around he might have been wrong about one particular take. Here is how the conversation went between Embiid and Redick when the latter brought the video of Embiid’s verbal argument with KD:
Redick: “You are two of the two or three best players in the world, going at it, toe-to-toe. It’s awesome.”
Embiid: “What what what? Two of the three?”
Redick: “Two or three of the best. You know two of the three best players. That’s why I said two of the three.”
Embiid: “Who is the third? If you say two of the three so that means I made a one two or three? That means me and KD we only two or three. So who’s the number one.”
The two went back and forth before Embiid finally forced Redick to name the third player.
Redick: “Jokic. It’s Jokic.”
Embiid: “Where is Giannis?”
Redick: “He’s in the next group. I mean- it’s so hard, there’s so many good players now.”
Embiid: “Oh that’s the Finals MVP. Two times MVP, Finals MVP. It’s crazy. That’s disrespectful.”
(starts at 2:55)
There’s no doubt that Jokic is a great player, definitely one of the best players in the league. But as good Jokic is, he is still not better than Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Greek Freak has already proved his worth in both the regular season and the playoffs as well. He led the Bucks to an. NBA Championship last season and already has a Hall of Fame-worthy resume.
So picking Jokic as the best player in the league over Antetokounmpo is a pretty hot take. And as Embiid mentioned, it’s flat-out disrespectful.
