NEW YORK — Kevin Durant said Joel Embiid deserves the MVP. He’s doubtful he’ll win it, though, because the Sixers center is not as likable as the two other leading candidates.
“There’s a lot of players that’s been controlled by their narrative,” Durant said. “Some of it has been because of the player and some of it has been about the perception other people have about that player. In Joel’s case, more people just like Giannis (Antetokounmpo) and (Nikola) Jokic.
“It’s as simple as that. His personality, his story I guess. As a basketball player, if people look at just the game and what is on the floor,” Durant continued, “then narrative and who you are and your personality, that stuff doesn’t really matter or shouldn’t matter. Joel, they probably just like those guys better. It’s not fair. But that’s how it goes at time. If I had a vote, I would choose Joel.”
The media has already submitted its votes for MVP and it should be a tight race between the three frontcourt All-Stars. Jokic, who led the latest ESPN media straw poll, won the award last year. He averaged 27 points with 13.8 rebounds and 7.9 assists while carrying a short-handed Nuggets squad to the West’s sixth seed.
Antetokounmpo, who already owns two MVPs, averaged 29.9 points with 11.6 boards for the East’s third-seeded Bucks. Embiid, gunning for his first MVP, led the NBA in scoring at 30.6 points with 11.7 rebounds for the fourth-seeded Sixers.
Durant said Embiid’s empty MVP trophy case should be another reason to give him the nod, and the threshold for back-to-back awards — as Jokic could accomplish and Embiid already did — should carry a higher threshold.
“I feel like if you are going to win back-to-back MVPS, it should be like Steph Curry. His first MVP, he averaged 23 points and seven rebounds. His next one, he stepped up such an enormous level (averaged 30.1 points for a 73-win team),” Durant said. “If you are going to get two in a row, you can’t duplicate the same thing you did the year before. That’s just how I feel. … To win two in a row you have to do something way bigger than the year before. I think back-to-back MVPs are special and the season you have to have team-wise and individual-wise, all has to come together to win back-to-back. I feel like Jokic had an incredible season but Joel season was just as good, if not better.”
Durant has his own case for a second MVP, albeit separated from his first by eight years, after lifting Brooklyn through a chaotic season into the play-in tournament. He averaged 29.9 points — and the Nets were 35-19 with him in the lineup — but the 33-year-old said he understands why he’s not in the conversation with 27 missed games.
If he never wins again, however, Durant will go down as one of the greatest ever without multiple MVPs.
“There’s a lot of 'what ifs.' In this game, if such and such didn’t get hurt, they would’ve have won this. If it bounced a different way, they wouldn’t be looked at this way,” Durant said. “There’s a lot of ‘what ifs.’ I felt I played at a level where I got better throughout the season and my teammates played well off of me and I played well off of them. I felt like I came in and approached every day like a most valuable player. That’s good enough for me.”
Nets coach Steve Nash, who won back-to-back MVPs for the Suns about 15 years ago, said it’s not an indictment on Durant’s legacy.
“It’s just the way it is. It’s circumstantial. It’s the time. The year. The story. The narrative,” Nash said. “My best year was the third year (in 2007) and Dirk Nowitzki got MVP. Every year there’s a case for someone else, so it’s not a linear thing where the best player gets it every year. It’s always how does the season go? How many games did they miss? Who else had an exceptional year? What’s the narrative? So it’s one of those things that’s not linear.”
