On May 3, Beijing time, the NBA officially announced the ownership of the regular season MVP. 76ers center Embiid defeated Jokic and Alphabet to win the award for the first time in his career. Embiid became the fifth player in 76ers history to be named regular season MVP, following Chamberlain (three consecutive times), Julius Irving, Moses Malone and Allen Iverson. This season, the NBA began naming the trophy the Michael Jordan Award, and Embiid won his first Jordan trophy.
Embiid ended up with 73 first votes with a total of 915 points, Jokic was second with 674 points, and Alphabet Brother was third with 606 points.
The 76ers officially posted a funny picture of Embiid being elected MVP (below) to congratulate him. Embiid hugged his head and cried when he learned of his election, the 76ers applauded and shouted MVP, and Harden sent a hug.
With Embiid's election, Jokic missed out on a three-game MVP winning streak. For the past five seasons, NBA regular-season MVPs have been players born outside the United States.
In the regular season this season, Embiid played in 66 games, averaging 33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, shooting 54.8% from the field, 33% from three-point range and 85.7% from the free-throw line, becoming the regular season scoring leader for two consecutive years. In addition to his average points per game, Embiid ranks first in the league in total goals (728) and two-point goals (662). Jokic averaged 24.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists in the regular season, and Alphabet averaged 31.1 points, 11.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists in the regular season.
In these 66 games, Embiid scored at least 40 points in 13 games and at least 50 points in 3 games, and on November 14, 2022 against the Jazz, Embiid shot 19 of 28, made 20 of 24 free throws, scored 59 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists and 7 blocks, a career high in points and a career record in blocks. Unfortunately, Embiid suffered a knee injury in the playoffs, missing G4 against the Nets series and G1 against the Green Army series, and the current G2 state is still a high probability of absence.
Jokic was No. 1 on the MVP list for most of the season, but Embiid issued a strong challenge to Jokic in the second half of the season. Jokic did not become the fourth MVP trifecta player in history, after only Russell, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Bird had done so.
Embiid was elected MVP, which not only received more recognition from the media, but also gained the support of the players. Shams said on a show in early April: "When chatting with players in the league, everyone voted for Embiid for MVP. ”
The NBA has been awarding regular-season MVPs since the 1955-56 season, and the most awarded player in history is Abdul-Jabbar, who has been elected six times. Jordan and Russell are both 5 times, tied for second. Chamberlain and James are both 4 times, tied for fourth. Due to Abdul-Jabbar's dominance in the award, the Celtics also became the team that won the most of the award. There are a total of 10 regular-season MVPs in history that belong to Green Army players: in addition to Russell's six, Byrd's three, and Cowens' one.
So far, only one person in the NBA has been elected MVP unanimously, and he is the Warriors' Curry. In the 2015-16 season, Curry averaged 30.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 2.1 steals per game, while winning the scoring and stealing kings, and the Warriors played a 73-9 regular season best. In the end, Curry received all 131 first votes and was unanimously elected MVP.
P.S. Regular season MVP in the past 10 years -
2013-14 season: Durant (Thunder)
2014-15: Curry (Warriors)
2015-16: Curry (Warriors)
2016-17 season: Wilson (Thunder)
2017-18: Harden (Rockets)
2018-19 season: Alphabet Brother (Bucks)
2019-20 season: Alphabet Brother (Bucks)
2020-21 season: Jokic (Nuggets)
2021-22: Jokic (Nuggets)
2022-23: Embiid (76ers)