Joel Embiid won the 2023 MVP award

Center of Philadelphia 76ers, Joel Embiid Won the 2023 regular season Most Valuable Player award, beating out fellow Los Angeles center Denver Nuggets, Nikola JokicHe was looking for his third award in a row.

Embiid finished second in the underdog Nikola Jokic Voted for the award in each of the last two seasons, he flipped the script this time, finishing ahead of Jokic and the Los Angeles forward. Milwaukee Bucks, Giannis AntetokounmpoFor the league’s individual honor.

The MVP was named after Michael Jordan this season as part of an overall review of league awards.

Embiid’s win marks the third straight for a center after Jokic’s wins over the past two seasons and the fifth straight overall for an international player, preceding Antetokounmkpo’s wins in the 2019 and 2020 seasons. The only international players to win MVP in the past five years Hakeem Olajuwon in 1993-94, Steve Nash in 2005-06 and Dirk Nowitzki in 2006-07.

Embiid, 29, had a breakout season for the 76ers this season as he improved his performance, averaging 33.1 points and 10.2 rebounds on 54.8 percent shooting to go along with 33.1 points and 54.8 percent shooting, leading the NBA. 4.2 assists and 1.7 blocks per game.

He has missed the past two weeks after suffering a sprained LCL in his right knee in Game 3 of Philadelphia’s first-round series. Brooklyn Nets. The injury forced him to miss both the final game of that series and Philadelphia’s lopsided win Boston Celtics with 45 points in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Monday night James Harden.

Meanwhile, Jokic almost became the first center and the third player Russell Westbrook And Oscar Robertson, who averaged a triple-double on the season, averaged 24.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists while shooting 63 percent from the field for the Western Conference-leading Nuggets. Between 1984 and 1986, Embiid denied becoming the fourth player in NBA history to win three consecutive MVP awards, joining the last player, Larry Bird. Bill Russell And Wilt Chamberlain.

Antetokounmpo, a two-time MVP winner, is averaging 31.1 points, 11.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists for Milwaukee this season. He led the Bucks to a league-best record before missing two full games and a third with a back injury in a shock loss to Milwaukee. Miami Heat In the first round of the playoffs last week.

Throughout the season, ESPN’s MVP straw polls have tracked just how close this race will be. In December, Jason Tatum He led the early preliminary polls, but received less than half of the overall first-place votes, showing that it was still an open race. When the second edition of the poll was conducted the week before the All-Star break, Jokic was in the lead, with 77 of the 100 first-place votes ahead of Antetokounmpo and Embiid, respectively.

But between that and the last straw poll that came out at the end of March, Jokic and the Nuggets struggled throughout March, while Embiid went on a complete streak after the All-Star break, moving Philly up the rankings. When faced with a league majority. A tough schedule.

As a result, despite receiving fewer first-place votes than Jokic, Embiid came out on top in the final poll at the end of March.

Embiid made his final argument with a 52-point, 13-rebound performance to lead the Celtics to a win in the final week of the regular season.