Philadelphia 76ers’ Joel Embiid becomes second KU Jayhawk to win MVP honors in NBA

Joel Embiid on Tuesday night became the second Kansas Jayhawk throughout history to be named Most Valuable Player in the top league in the world — the NBA.

The Philadelphia 76ers’ dominant 7-foot, 280-pound big-man, who played at KU during a one-and-done 2013-14 season, joins Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain, a Jayhawk center who claimed the honor four times — 1960, 1966, 1967, and 1968.

“I don’t know what to say, (it’s) amazing,” Embiid, a 29-year-old, nine-year NBA veteran from Cameroon said after being named winner of the award Tuesday night on TNT. He placed second in MVP voting in each of the last two seasons.

“It’s been a long time coming, a lot of hard work. My life, my story, where I’ve come from, what it took for me to be here, amazing,” Embiid added.

KU, of course, has been a part of his life story.

Embiid — he first was introduced to basketball as a teenager in his home country, then after traveling to Florida to play for both Montverde Academy and The Rock School in Florida, averaged 11.2 points and 8.1 rebounds while starting 20 of 28 games for KU in 2013-14.

“Joel … I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone progress as fast as he did,” Embiid’s big-man teammate at KU, Landen Lucas, said in a conversation with KU coach Bill Self on Lucas’ Glue-Guys podcast. “When you are around somebody every day you don’t notice the progression as much, but with him you noticed it. Almost every practice he’d be getting better.”

That KU team, which also had current NBA standout Andrew Wiggins in the starting lineup, went 25-10 and won the Big 12 regular-season crown before falling in the second round of the NCAAs.

Embiid couldn’t play in his only collegiate postseason because of injury.

“When you think about the best five players in the world, Joel Embiid is definitely one of them,” KU coach Bill Self said to Lucas on the Glue Guys podcast. “We are not surprised at all with his success (but) I did not know he’d be arguably the best big man in the world missing two years of pro ball (to start his nine-year career with the Sixers because of injury). He was so good, so smart. He picked up stuff so easily.

“He saw the game like a point guard, saw it from the 5-man position. His skill set almost allowed him to play like that (lead guard). He was amazing.”

Embiid averaged 33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists this MVP season.

He beat out runner-up Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets who took the award the past two years and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks who was third.

Embiid received 73 first-place votes. Jokic received 15 first-place votes and Antetokounmpo notched 12.

“Joel is going to be a bona fide Hall of Famer. That is a slam dunk. He’s already had a Hall of Fame type career,” KU coach Self told media during the 2022-23 season when asked of Embiid’s progress as a pro. “That’s like asking back in the Wilt (Chamberlain) era if Wilt would be a starter for KU. Chances are he would have been. Jo’ did things you can’t coach. He’s just different.”

Self told the story of Embiid actually wanting to redshirt during preseason of his only season at Kansas.

“Tarik Black was a good player, a fourth-year senior. He came in as a graduate transfer. We thought those two would probably kind of share minutes,” Self said. “One could play the 4, both would get 25 minutes a game. The first practice Joel was getting his butt kicked. Tarik was spinning him around. Joel came up to the office and said, ‘Coach you are going to have to redshirt me, aren’t you?’ I said, ‘No you are going to be the first pick in the draft this year.’

“That’s the first week he was here.”

Embiid was named the 2014 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and was an All-Big 12 second team pick. He was also named to the 2014 Big 12 newcomer and Big 12 all-defense teams.

Embiid set the record for most blocked shots in a game as a freshman with eight rejections against Oklahoma State. He also set the Kansas freshman record for most rebounds per game (8.1), most blocks in a single season (72). He had the highest field-goal percentage in a freshman season at Kansas (62.6%).

Embiid — he was selected third in the 2014 NBA Draft — pulled away from the competition in the MVP race this season by totaling three 50-point games. He had a career-high 59 points against Utah in November. He scored 40 or more points in 13 games.

According to NBA.com, former Boston Celtics coach and current 76ers leader Doc Rivers said after Embiid burned his former team for 52 points and 12 rebounds in April: “The MVP race is over.” Embiid agreed with the coach after hearing his remarks.

Popular with his teammates, Embiid’s teammates erupted in applause and started chanting “MVP, MVP!” Tuesday while watching the TNT show in Boston (the location of Philly’s playoff series vs. the Celtics). According to NBA.com, Embiid buried his head in his hands and was in tears as teammates James Harden, Tobias Harris and Tyrese Maxey hugged him.

He was well-liked by coaches, players and media types alike during his one year in Lawrence. At one point he entertained media by relating a story about his allegedly wrestling a lion back in Cameroon.

“I’m amazed at his intellect. He can speak four languages. Everybody loves him. The coaches’ wives liked him so much. They’d make him anything. Brownies were all he ate,” Self said last season on his Hawk Talk radio show.

“Terrible nutrition habits.” Self joked. “He’d tell people part of his tribal initiation (in Cameroon) was wrestling a lion. People would actually buy it.”

Self on Tuesday night was unavailable for comment regarding Embiid being named MVP.

NBA.com reports that Embiid is the first 76er to win league MVP since Allen Iverson in 2001. Other Sixers to win MVP: Julius Erving (1981), Moses Malone (1983) and KU’s Chamberlain.

Embiid currently has a sprained right knee that kept him from playing in Game 1 vs. Boston Monday in the Eastern Conference semifinals.