James Harden buys Joel Embiid $100,000 Rolex for winning MVP for Sixers

BOSTON — The most heartwarming reaction to Joel Embiid finally winning the NBA MVP award was, of course, Embiid weeping after the announcement. He lowered his giant, hairy head into his giant, calloused left hand, and the waterworks began.

“I told myself, ‘If I win, I’m not going to have any emotions. I’m not going to cry,’” he said. “I ended up doing the opposite.”

It was similarly touching to witness his teammates’ joy at his moment of triumph — particularly, James Harden’s.

Harden, the 2018 MVP with Houston, leaped from his seat, massaged the big man’s shoulders, and gave him long, heartfelt hugs that only alpha dogs can share. Because it is a feeling only alpha dogs can know: acknowledgment of greatness. Validation of talent. Recognition as the best of the best, when the rest are excellent, too.

“Absolutely,” Harden said before the Game 2 shootaround Wednesday morning. “What, they were going to give Jokić three in a row?”

As it turns out, Harden was even more invested than he admitted.

After Embiid’s postpractice press conference, Harden presented Embiid with a rose-gold, diamond-encrusted Rolex watched inscribed with Embiid’s No. 21 and ‘23 MVP.

An amateur watch expert on hand estimated the watch’s value at about $100,000. For Embiid, it is priceless.

He tried to slide it over his massive paw but could not. It needed to be adjusted, so his handlers offered to put it back in the box. Embiid refused. The watch and the moment were simply too precious to let go. Like a child with a blanket, he clutched it in his hand for the next 30 minutes. It meant so much to him that Harden, his teammate for only 14 months, a superstar and future Hall of Famer who had teamed with players like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, and Chris Paul, would so quickly make such a loving gesture.

“James ... I don’t even know where to start,” Embiid said. “Since he’s been here, I think ... he won’t tell me this, but I think he kind of made his goal for me to be the MVP. He’s given up a lot.”

The Sixers filmed the moment, captured in a meeting room at the fancy team hotel in Boston, and within hours the video had tens of millions of views from various posts on several social media platforms. It was fascinating: Players sat, gazes riveted to a TV screen at the front of the room. Some wore Sixers gear like Harden, his compression shorts peeking from under his gym shorts. Some wore logo gear, like Embiid. Some wore loungewear, like Tobias Harris. After the announcement, all wore their hearts on their sleeves.

Harris rose and pounded Embiid’s shoulders and chest. After seeing one-dimensional Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić finish just ahead of Embiid — a generational talent on both ends of the floor — in the last two MVP races, Harris and his teammates nearly burst with pride when their guy won. They chanted, “M-V-P! M-V-P!” They teased him: “He’s crying!”

Embiid welcomed the hullabaloo.

“I wanted them there,” he said. “They are part of why I was getting that [award].”

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“We know how much work he’s put in, and what it’s meant for him to get that — especially guys who were here last year. We thought he should’ve gotten it last year as well,” Harris said. “This type of recognition for such an amazing award in the NBA — that’s huge, man. I think everybody wanted to embrace that moment with him.”

Much has been made of Harden’s sacrifice — he averaged 14.5 shots per game, by far his fewest since he became a starter 11 years ago — but no Sixer has sacrificed his game for Embiid as much for as long and as often as Harris. He arrived in Philly as a rising player, a No. 1 or No. 2 option, but has never been more than a No. 2 with Embiid — and, depending on whether the roster included Jimmy Butler or Harden, he’s often been a No. 3 or 4. Harris averaged only 11.4 shots per game this season, his lowest rate of fire in a decade.

So, when Embiid talks about this moment belonging to the team, he’s also talking about teammates sacrificing their games to magnify his. When confronted with this reality, Harris, ever classy, demurred:

“I don’t really want to take away from the spotlight of him doing what he has to do on a night-to-night basis,” Harris said. “He put in the work. We allowed him to make his game flourish. The better we are as a team, the better resumé you have to be an MVP.”

That’s where Harris’ reaction came from. But no player in the NBA can feel Embiid’s triumph like Harden, because no other player in the NBA has suffered the criticisms Embiid has suffered:

He doesn’t work hard enough. He doesn’t play hard all the time. He’s fat. He isn’t in shape. He’s distracted by his habits off the court.

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No player worked harder to earn an NBA career than Sixers GM Elton Brand, a burly presence mainly for the Clippers and Sixers over his 17 seasons. If he respects the work ethic of Harden and Embiid, who sandwiched back-to-back MVPs won by Giannis Antetokounmpo and then Jokić, then we all should.

That’s what Brand saw when he saw Harden hug Embiid:

“Their kinship is knowing what it takes. Whatever the negative slant or spin you might have on those players, they put in the work. They truly put in the work. They go above and beyond. You don’t get to that level without putting in the work. That’s what I think people on the outside might not see or appreciate. And it’s not for show. It’s who he is.

“Joel, with the work that he put in, people don’t appreciate that, in my opinion. Because it’s real.”

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