2022-23 NBA MVP Race: If early returns are indication, Joel Embiid is the MVP
It is not known for sure whether or not Joel Embiid will win the NBA MVP award, but if early returns are any indication, the race is already over.
The votes were due to the league office Monday afternoon. Max Croes, who goes by @CroesFire on Twitter, has done a great job canvassing social and traditional media in the quest to aggregate NBA MVP votes. You can find his research here.
At the time of this filing, 34 of 100 total voters have made their MVP winners public. Of those 34 voters, 24 have named Embiid as the MVP.
This MVP race has been as tightly contested as any in recent memory, between Embiid and a pair of 2-time MVPs, Denvers Nikola Jokic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks.
Compared with Embiids majority of votes, Jokic and Antetokounmpo have five first-place votes apiece.
Embiid, the back-to-back NBA scoring champion, was a distant second in the eyes of oddsmakers as recently as March, but he closed the season with a flourish, while Jokic missed 4-of-5 games down the stretch with a calf injury.
Embiid finished the season with 33.1 points per game and 10.2 rebounds per game. Hes the first player to average 33 points and ten rebounds per game for a season since Bob McAdoo, who did so for the Buffalo Braves in the 1974-1975 season. The players to reach those marks in a season read like NBA royalty:
Wilt Chamberlain 7 times
Elgin Baylor 3 times
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 1971-72
Bob McAdoo 1974-75
Joel Embiid 2022-2023
Aside from Embiid, all Hall of Famers. If voting holds, and the big man takes home the hardware, they can begin to chisel his place in Springfield, Massachusetts.
