Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid recently responded to the narrative that he is too interested in individual awards and doesn't play hard enough to win in the postseason. Embiid addressed several narratives about him in a feature by ESPN's Dotun Akintoye, including that he has cared more about playing hard in the regular season to win individual awards—such as his MVP award in 2023—than trying in the postseason.
Though players across a variety of sports will say that the individual awards don't matter, winning a championship does, Embiid believes that anyone who can win an award like MVP will go after it.
"If you are in a position to win an MVP, I don't care who you are, you're going after it because I never believed I would be in this position, first of all," Embiid told Akintoye. "Second of all, when I got in the league, I thought, 'Yeah, maybe I'll have a chance to be a great defensive player.' I never thought I was going to be this good offensively."
Embiid is proud of how good he has become offensively, especially to win an award like MVP, but he rejects the notion he isn't playing hard in the postseason as well.
"You're basically saying that he's playing harder in the regular season than he's playing in the playoffs, which doesn't make sense because if you look at the minutes, the minutes rise. And you're playing harder. And you do more on both ends of the floor," Embiid said.
While Embiid's averages in certain statistical categories might be down during the postseason, he is playing more minutes. In his last postseason run in 2024, Embiid averaged 41.3 minutes per game, nearly eight more minutes per game than he saw in the regular season. Over his last three playoff runs, he has averaged over 37 minutes per game each time, a figure he has not averaged during the regular season.
Embiid doesn't agree that he doesn't play hard in the postseason, but he doesn't mind the label that he isn't a winner.
"No one is a winner until they've done it," he said. "I'm fine with that narrative because I haven't done it. Charles Barkley, great player, right? But he never won. [Allen Iverson] never won. ... But that doesn't mean they weren't great. They were amazing."
At this point, Embiid tells Akintoye he believes his lack of a championship ring is the only "stain" on his resumé, but as he rehabs his knee injury that caused him to miss the majority of last season, he is not rushing back to the court. He won't be pushing his injury, which in the long run, will give him and the Sixers a better shot at winning.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Joel Embiid Responds to Narratives About Postseason Play, Caring Too Much About Awards.