Joel Embiid injury 'could have been avoided' as NBA MVP faces worrying deadline
Joel Embiid, the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player, suffered another injury during a match against the Golden State Warriors and his return is still unknown.
Some insiders at the Philadelphia 76ers believe that pressure from online fans and reports may have contributed to his latest setback. The 76ers lost their star player in the fourth quarter when Jonathan Kuminga fell on Embiid's knee.
The MVP had already sat out two previous games due to knee soreness and is now ruled out of Thursday's game against the Utah Jazz. Embiid will have missed 13 games this season after he sits out on Thursday night, and if he misses four more, he will not be eligible for postseason honours under the league's new rules.
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According to The Athletic, some members of the 76ers organisation think Embiid's injury could have been avoided if he wasn't trying so hard to prove himself. After years of criticising the NBA's MVP voting criteria, Embiid finally won the award and doesn't want to give it up.
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The 76ers star player made history on January 23 by scoring an amazing 70 points in a game against the San Antonio Spurs, also grabbing a whopping 18 rebounds. But if he can't play in four more games after Thursday, his amazing efforts might not help him win any awards this year.
The team's coach, Nick Nurse, shared some worrying news about Embiid's knee pain, which has been bothering him all season. "He said he's more rusty-he hadn't been on the court in five days-but he said he felt good," Nurse told the press. "He felt like he wasn't quite playing like his normal self, but he felt like that was more rust and rhythm than it was anything else."
Joel Embiid is set to miss another game for the Philadelphia 76ers through injury (No credit)Even though Embiid has had issues with how the MVP award is decided, he admitted that winning it "meant everything" to him last season. He's really eager to win again, saying: "It's hard to win this league; it's hard to be successful in this league," according to Embiid.
"There's a reason why these are the best basketball players in the world. And to be sitting here and feeling like I won something as far as the Most Valuable Player is 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 -- and I feel like, just looking at my story, they can look at it and be like, '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 is, I'd say, probably negative zero... We don't have a lot of opportunities back in Africa in general to get to this point. But improbable doesn't mean impossible, and you can accomplish anything you set your mind to."
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