Joel Embiid wants his MVP story to serve as inspiration: ‘Improbable doesn’t mean impossible’

BOSTON — From time to time, Joel Embiid reminds us that his life is like a movie.

The main character hails from Cameroon. He didn’t take up basketball until age 15, then moved to America to hone his skills and nearly walked away from the sport.

But after staying the course, he’s now a perennial All-Star starter, face of the 76ers franchise, and 2023 NBA MVP.

» READ MORE: Sixers’ Joel Embiid wins NBA MVP, beating out Nikola Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo

Embiid’s life, and his latest accomplishment, are a testament to perseverance.

“The whole goal was when I got a chance to come to the U.S. was really to come get a [college] degree and find a way to get a job,” Embiid said during Wednesday’s MVP press conference. “I didn’t think basketball would get me anywhere.”

Blessed with athletic ability and a high basketball IQ, Embiid was destined to become an NBA player. He was even projected to be drafted first overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

But a week before the draft, the Cavaliers worked out Embiid and discovered a stress fracture in his right foot during a physical. That led the center to slide to third, where the Sixers selected him.

Embiid then missed his first two NBA seasons because of two surgeries to repair the navicular bone in his foot. During that first season, he experienced tragedy when his young brother Arthur died in a car accident in Cameroon.

“So with everything that has been happening, obviously, me losing my brother was a big part of it, almost leading me to quitting basketball,” said Embiid, whose toddler son, Arthur, is named in his brother’s honor. “Not wanting to come back because I felt like it was kind of my fault because I left Cameroon, and I left my family. I felt like I should have been there to do something.

“And there was also a period where there were a lot of dark times missing two years because of the foot and everything going on around the organization.”

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The Sixers went 18-64 and 10-72, respectively, while tanking during the two seasons Embiid sat out. Embiid was accustomed to winning, and the stigma that comes with tanking was tough on him. So were the other injuries that would plague him throughout his career.

Embiid played in only 31 games in his third season before the team announced on March 1, 2017, that he would need season-ending knee surgery. He has missed time every season with injuries.

But Embiid has not only preserved through those injuries, he has gotten better at basketball.

“I’m just glad that I pushed through it,” he said, “and I’m sitting here sitting in front of you guys, having accomplished something that a lot of people don’t get the opportunity to. It’s hard. It’s hard to win in this league. It’s hard to be successful in this league.

“There’s a reason why these are the best basketball players in the world. And to be sitting here and feel like I won something as far as the Most Valuable Player, it’s great. But then again, it’s also part of my story because I’ve always felt like I was a role model, especially to my Cameroonian people and my African people.”

Embiid wants people to look at his story and say, “Wow, he did it.”

“Probably the probability of someone like me, starting playing basketball at 15, to get the chance to be the MVP of the league … I’d say it’s probably negative zero,” he said.

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Embiid became the first Basketball Without Borders alumnus to win the MVP award. He participated in BWB Africa 2011 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Embiid notes that there are not a lot of opportunities in Africa that lead to becoming MVP.

“But improbable doesn’t mean impossible,” he said. “You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. As long as you believe in it and you keep working hard, anything can happen.”

Embiid was the runaway winner, finishing with 915 points and 73 first-place votes from the media. Two-time defending MVP and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić was second with 674 points and 15 first-place votes. Giannis Antetokounmpo, a Milwaukee Bucks power forward, was third with 606 points and 12 first-place votes.

James Harden, the 2018 MVP, presented Embiid with a Rolex with “23 MVP” engraved on the back after Wednesday’s press conference. Embiid noted that this was his first watch.

In all the pageantry, Embiid said he realized winning MVP means more than he previously said it would.

“I know I’ve always said I don’t care,” he said, “but it was just for you guys to leave me alone and not ask me questions about it. But I do care in the way that it validates all the work that you put in. And just to be sitting here, it’s amazing.”

Embiid actually wants to win everything. It doesn’t matter if it’s basketball or playing any game in life. He’s determined to take first place.

“I think a lot of people have this misconception of the difference between being competitive and wanting to win everything possible,” he said. “I don’t want to win this award because it’s just the MVP. I want to win it because it means a lot to me. Like I said, I went through a lot, and that’s just a validation that the sacrifices and everything you went through, it’s paying off in some ways.”

Embiid knows his journey is far from finished, and he believes winning a championship is going to feel much better than this individual award. “We have that opportunity,” he said.

To Embiid, a championship would add another riveting scene in his movie.

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