That Joel Embiid on Thursday was chosen as a starter for the 2019 All-Star Game was hardly a surprise.
Just look at what the man has done so far, 46 games into his third NBA season:
• He ranks seventh in the league in scoring, averaging 27.2 points per game.
• His 13.3 rebounding average is third-best overall.
• He’s tied for the league lead with 40 double-doubles (Utah’s Rudy Gobert), and has reached 40 double-doubles faster than any Sixer since Charles Barkley in 1986-87.
• He paces the league with 21 30-point x 10-rebound games.
You really could go on and on with this stuff for a while.
To a certain degree, it’s not even necessary to prop up Embiid’s dominance this season with a laundry list of statistical achievements, staggering as they are. The eye test alone should more than suffice.
Watch the 7-footer play, and the impact of his commanding presence on both ends of the court is immediately obvious.
Fittingly enough, the announcement that Embiid will be making his second straight All-Star start - a first for a Sixer since Allen Iverson (2000 - 06) - comes during not only one of his strongest stretches of the 2018-19 campaign, but his entire career.
He’s reached 30 points in three consecutive contests, and four of his last five. He’s also posted double-doubles in four of his past five outings, en route to helping the Sixers four quality wins.
Two things in particular have stood out about Embiid’s recent efforts. He’s looked exceptional against top-flight competition, and done so while dealing with recurring tightness in his back.
That the 7-footer has managed to stay in the line-up at such a critical time of the year - with the difficulty of the schedule only increasing - hasn’t been lost on Brett Brown.
“All you really have to do, in my eyes, is look what happens when we don’t have him,” said Brown.
The Sixers’ net rating differential is a telling (and team-high) 11.9 points per 100 possessions when Embiid is on the floor. Defensively, the team’s net rating drops by 6.7 points per 100 possessions with the Cameroon native on the bench.
But for as heady as Embiid’s numbers have been, Brown sees a bigger story emerging.
“I think, more importantly, his leadership and his growth - recognizing the responsibility that he has with this city, with this program - his professional disposition and professional approach to practice, shootarounds, film sessions has been at the best that he’s ever been at for me.”
The marriage of these two converging forces - elite performance and evolving maturity - makes Embiid unquestionably deserving of his starting nod to the All-Star Game. He racked up 2,783,833 fan votes, the fourth-highest total among all players in the Eastern Conference, and finished third and first, respectively, in player and media voting for frontcourt players from the East.
Let the accolades continue to flow.
