Philadelphia 76ers: Snubbing Joel Embiid from first team All-NBA is a joke
No matter how you feel about Joel Embiid, the Philadelphia 76ers’ superstar center certainly deserves to be a first-team All-NBA player over Nikola Jokic.
When the NBA officially released their All-NBA list, it seemed like a nice opportunity for fans of the Philadelphia 76ers to get a little bump of excitement.
Sure, literally the day before we received a minor disappointment when Joel Embiid was once again relegated to second-team All-Defense following another bridesmaid season to Rudy Gobert, but surely he’d get justice on the All-NBA team, and be crowned the best center in the league.
Boy were we in for another big ole’ letdown.
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As the list’s link was tweeted out by Woj, Shams, and then Woj again, fans in the 215 scoured down their screens and were presumably shocked to find that again Embiid was relegated to the second team; this time a runner-up to the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic.
What?
I mean seriously, what?
Now don’t get me wrong, Jokic is great, and one of the more interesting big men in NBA history due to his ability to impact games not only as a scorer, and as a rebounder, but also as a passer, but he’s no Joel Embiid; no one is.
When he’s on, at full strength and in good health there isn’t a player who’s harder to account for in the NBA than Embiid as he can pretty much score from anywhere on the court, and lock down the paint better than pretty much anyone else (I’d wager even Gobert).
Embiid is so good, in fact, that he not only forces opposing teams to play him differently, but he’s also forced Brett Brown to completely change his scheme to accommodate the generational force; slowing things down and running the show through his best player, as opposed to the run-and-gun style he utilized over his first few seasons in Philly.
Granted, Jokic has also changed how things are done in Denver, as the team runs their offense through the 7-foot-tall Serbian, giving the Nuggets one of the strangest offensive looks in the league, but calling him the best center in the league is almost like calling Ben Simmons the best point guard in the league; it just seems wrong.
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Regardless of his popularity in the league among other players, coaches, and apparently voters for All-NBA lists, Joel Embiid is the prototypical representation of what every team wants in a modern NBA center and relegating him to the second team for a gimmicky big man feels like a cruel joke not only for fans of the Philadelphia 76ers, but for basketball in general.