Joel Embiid, NBA MVP: the Cameroonian who DT kicked out in his first workout and who has now snatched votes from Jokic

Yes Joel Embiid if he was weak-headed, he surely would have postponed his dream because of his experiences. Is that, when he arrived in the United States from Cameroon, I could not speak Englishhe barely understood the culture due to his taste for the hip hop and in the first practice he played so badly that his coach kicked him out of the gym. But the Yaoundé-born man, who took up basketball late, became the second African on Wednesday to be NBA regular-season MVP, sweeping the Serbian vote Nikola Jokic (Nuggets).

The superstar center of the Philadelphia 76ers took revenge for the last two seasons, when he lost the award at the hands of the Serbian. He was chosen first by 73 of the 100 international journalists who vote to match Nigerian Hakeem Olajuwon (1994). Jokic received 15 votes and Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks), who also has two MVP awards (2019 and 2020), another 12.

“I really don’t know where to start, it took a long time”Embiid told the TNT network with a smile. “A lot of hard work, I’ve been through a lot. And I’m not just talking about basketball, I’m talking about life, my history, how I got here and what it cost me to be here.”complete.

“I feel good. I don’t know what to say. It’s amazing,” said the center, who followed the announcement along with the rest of his Sixers teammates in Boston, where they compete against the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

From the hills of Yaounde to the top of the NBA

Embiid’s pick extends the dominance of international players to the top individual prize in the NBA. The last American player to receive it was in 2018 James HardenEmbiid’s current teammate on the Sixers.

Embiid has been one of the most dominant centers in the NBA since making his debut in 2016, expanding his range each season to also be a threat from the outside line.

The Cameroonian, with extraordinary agility of movement and ball control for his 2.13 meters tall, has been the top scorer in the NBA for the last two seasons and has been chosen six times for the All-Star Game.

Ultra-motivated to win this award, the Cameroonian resisted various physical problems until he signed his best season at an individual level, with averages of 33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.7 blocks.

The center amassed 13 games with at least 40 points, three of them over 50, propelling the Sixers to third place in the East.

In the playoffs, he suffered a right knee sprain that ruled him out of the final first-round game against the Nets and the opening game of the series against the Celtics, in which Philadelphia won on a performance by Harden.

What is unique about Embiid’s journey is that he didn’t play basketball until he was 15, having previously tried other sports like soccer and volleyball.

Embiid was discovered on a campus organized by his compatriot and former NBA player Luc Mbah in Moute, Cameroon.

With few fundamentals but an impressive physique, he received an instant invitation to the Basketball Without Borders campus in South Africa and, two months later, moved to the United States to play in a high school in the state of Florida.

“I didn’t know English, I didn’t know anyone in America, I didn’t understand the culture except basic hip-hop”told the same player in a text published in 2018 on The Players’ Tribune. “I knew how to dunk, but I didn’t have (ball) handling. So I went to practice the first day and it hurt so much that the coach kicked me out of the gym.”.

The stud contained his desire to return home and began to improve his skills at an accelerated rate. A year later he was recruited by University of Kansas and in 2014 he was drafted by the Sixers in third place in the Draft.

A foot injury sidelined him for his first two seasons in Philadelphia. Lui finally made his Sixers debut in October 2016, dazzling with 20 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks.

The Sixers quickly made him the leader of their long and painful rebuilding process. Embiid himself was so involved that he dubbed himself “The Process”.

Philadelphia has failed to surround Embiid with the right pieces and has fallen in the first or second round of the playoffs for the past four seasons.

Now, the Cameroonian now has a fresh opportunity to reach his first Conference Finals, but he needs to recover from the sprain, which he told TNT could also keep him away from the second game this Wednesday.