Philadelphia 76ers star center Joel Embiid will miss “an extended period of time” following the decision to undergo surgery on a meniscus injury, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
The injury will likely prevent him from repeating as the NBA’s MVP, which he had been favored to win for much of the year before reportedly suffering a tear to his left meniscus on Wednesday.
In an effort to mitigate teams resting their big stars, the NBA instituted a new rule this year mandating a player log at least 65 games in order to be eligible for major awards.
Embiid, who has already missed 14 of Philly’s 48 games, can only afford to miss three more and still be eligible for the MVP. If Wojnarowski’s “extended period” forecast is correct, Joel can kiss the back-to-back honors goodbye. (RELATED: 76ers’ Joel Embiid Hit With $35,000 Fine After D-Generation X Celebration)
BREAKING: 76ers star Joel Embiid — the reigning MVP — will undergo a procedure this week to repair a left meniscus injury, a team official tells ESPN. A recovery timeline is expected after procedure, but expectation is that he will miss an extended period of time. pic.twitter.com/9c3ZqM7iT2
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 5, 2024
The situation brings the new policy into question as Embiid has been a force when on the court, leading the league in scoring with 35.3 points per game and adding an impressive 11.9 rebounds and 5.7 assists.
While the award’s new favorite, Nikola Jokic, is a worthy candidate with his near-triple-double-averaging statline, what if there hadn’t been a candidate quite so deserving?
Should we just give the award to the second best player every time a guy can only play 64 games? I’m not quite sure how I feel about this. After all, the best availability is availability. And at the end of the day, Embiid’s job is to get his team to the Finals and win it, not be the best regular season player in the stat box. But at the same time a lot of players sign deals with their bonuses attached to awards.
Either way, you gotta feel for the big man who reportedly fought through knee issues all year and put his team in solid position to compete for a Finals bid. Hopefully we’ll see him again on the court this year,