With the NBA All-Star Weekend only a short time away, the league has announced the players set to grace the stage for the midseason spectacle. While there were some obvious selections, there were just as many puzzling snubs for players who didn’t quite make the cut.
This is the boat that Philadelphia 76ers’ star Joel Embiid certainly falls into, as the former MVP is having one of his best seasons in recent memory, averaging 26.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. While these numbers aren’t the flashiest, especially compared to Embiid’s three-season run, when he was in contention for the MVP award, looking at where he was last season, this has been quite impressive.
Yet it wouldn’t be enough to have Embiid join his fellow Sixers teammate, Tyrese Maxey, in Los Angeles, as the guard was named as a starter for the first time in his career, having previously made the mid-season spectacle in the 2023-24 campaign.
While getting snubbed from the All-Star team could be something to pester a player, that isn’t the case with Embiid, who has seemed to take it on the chin and not be phased by what others think of his abilities.
“I don’t need any validation from anybody,” Embiid told members of the press. “I’m excited to be playing every night.”
Given that the Cameroonian star is a seven-time All-Star, it could just be that he’s over it and not too impacted by not making it. It’s clear, though, that Embiid has different ambitions at this point in his career: a championship ring.
“There’s only one thing missing for me,” Embiid stated. “Not my wife, [looking at his hand], another ring, as a basketball player, there’s only one thing missing.”
The playoffs have been the one area of the Cameroonian’s career that hasn’t gone to plan, having failed to make it out of the second round of the playoffs across his ten-year tenure in the league.
However, with the Sixers currently sixth in the Eastern Conference, well within the playoff picture, it appears Embiid could get another shot at lifting the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
For all the latest NBA news and rumors, head over to Newsweek Sports.