In the press conference following last night’s game against the 76ers, Nikola Jokic gave plenty of respect to his colleague and fellow NBA MVP, Joel Embiid. When speaking to the media for the final time on Saturday, the Joker doubled down on comments made earlier in the night and explained why everyone needs to pay attention to what is happening in Philadelphia.
“I don’t have nothing against him and I think he’s a great player. If you’re a basketball, soccer, horse racing fan, Denver Nuggets fan, Philadelphia fan, whoever, enemies, whatever, I think you need to respect what he’s doing. He’s putting history in front of our eyes and he’s making it look so easy.”
Despite whatever narratives are being spun by the media and fans, Nikola Jokic has no hate for Embiid. In fact, it seems like he actually has a massive admiration and respect for his career even though they are competing for the same awards. With no Embiid last night, we were robbed of a chance to see the game’s two best players in action but the best may be yet to come if Philadelphia is able to make a run to the NBA Finals.
Jokic And Embiid Run The NBA
Over the past three seasons, Nikola and Joel have been swapping MVP trophies and they are on track to compete for the award again as the two forerunners this campaign. Meanwhile, both the Nuggets and 76ers are near the top of their conferences and are looking like legitimate threats in the postseason. For perhaps the fourth straight year, the league belongs to the big men and it could be like this for several more years to come.
Despite winning the championship and cementing his legacy as the Finals MVP, Nikola Jokic hasn’t lost a step this season and continues to dominate with the same intensity and consistency that he has for the past four years. At 32-15, the Nuggets are easily favored to come out of the West this season and it will take an elite performance on both ends of the floor to take them down in a best-of-seven series.
Joel Embiid Is Making History
With season averages of 36.0 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks in 34.2 minutes per game, Embiid is currently dropping the most points per minute by any player in history and he’s quickly cementing himself as one of the greatest scoring bigs in basketball history. Nobody has been able to stop him this season and it’s why the 76ers are 3rd in the East despite losing James Harden this past summer. In short, Joel is on another level right now and even his biggest competitor, Nikola Jokic, can recognize that it deserves to be celebrated.
The question for Joel is if he can follow up this regular-season dominance with a win in the playoffs. To date, Embiid has yet to make the Conference Finals and there are serious doubts about his ability to turn it up when the stakes are highest. Only time will tell how he fares under the bright lights this spring, but Nikola Jokic isn’t taking his game for granted, and neither should anyone else.
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