Nets star Kevin Durant thinks Joel Embiid deserves to be MVP

Joel Embiid is the best player in the NBA. What he is not is the most likable.

That latter part, says Kevin Durant, is what will keep the Philadelphia star from winning the MVP award this year over Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Denver’s Nikola Jokic.

“If I had to choose, I would go Joel Embiid," Durant said Tuesday morning as his team prepared to play the Cleveland Cavaliers in a play-in game. “It’s unfortunate. There’s a lot of players that have been controlled by their narrative. Some of it has been because of the player and some of it has been because of the perception of other people about the player.

“In Joel’s case, more people just like Giannis and Jocic. You know. It’s as simple as that. His personality, his story. As a basketball player, if people look at just the game and what is on the floor, narrative and who you are and your personality that stuff doesn’t really matter or shouldn’t matter. Joel, they probably just like those guys better. It’s not fair. But that’s how it goes at time.”

Durant doesn’t have a vote as the MVP is decided by media members. Although ballots have already been cast, the winner is not usually announced until sometime after the first round of the playoffs.

Right now, it’s expected to be a tight race among the frontcourt players with Jokic being the front-runner. Jokic, who won the award last season, averaged 27 points, 13.8 rebounds and 7.9 assists in leading the Nuggets to the No. 6 seed.

Antetokounmpo, who won the MVP 2018 and 2019, averaged 29.9 points with 11.6 rebounds for the third-seeded Bucks.

Durant, who won the MVP in 2014 when he was with Oklahoma City, also believes that a player should have to do something extraordinary to win back-to-back awards.

“It should be like Steph Curry. His first MVP, he averaged 23 points and seven rebounds. His next one, he stepped up such an enormous level,” Durant said referring to the year he scored 30.1 points on a 73-win team. “If you are going to get two in a row, you can’t duplicate the same thing you did the year before. That’s just how I feel.

“I think back-to-back MVPS are special and the season you have to have team-wise and individual-wise, all has to come together to win back-to-back. I feel like Jokic had an incredible season but Joel this season was just as good, if not better.”

Of course, one person who has been notably absent from this year’s MVP conversation is Durant himself, even though he averaged 29.9 points.

Durant, who missed a chunk of games in the middle of the season with an MCL injury, played in 55 regular-season games, three short of the 58 needed in order to be in contention for the scoring title. Though there is no minimum number of games a player needs to play to be considered for MVP, if a player hasn’t been listed in the scoring leaders all season, it’s hard for him to make that leap.

Still, it's hard to think of a player who has been more valuable to his team this year than the 33-year-old Durant; the Nets were 35-19 with him in the lineup and 9-19 without him.

Durant understands why he isn’t in the conversation, but he thinks he has done everything he can for his team.

“There’s a lot of what ifs,” Durant said. “I felt I played at a level where I got better throughout the season and my teammates played well off of me and I played well off of them. “I felt like I came in and approached every day like a Most Valuable Player. That’s good enough for me.”

It’s certainly good enough for Nets coach Steve Nash, who won back-to-back MVP awards in 2005 and 2006

"Kevin would be my MVP for sure," Nash said. "I don't know how many games someone has to play to be it, but obviously I just think Kevin's incredible, what he does, and what he's able to do to affect the game in so many different ways."

By Barbara Barker

barbara.barker@newsday.commeanbarb

Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.