Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers are in a two-man race for the 2023 NBA MVP award, with no real consensus on which player should come out on top.
Jokic has beaten out Embiid the last couple of years, as he’s won the regular-season award consecutively, but the 76ers superstar has had arguably his best season yet in the NBA and is more than deserving of winning his first MVP.
With the NBA regular season quickly coming to a close in the next week or so, the debate continues, with Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry letting his opinion be known as he’s going with Embiid.
Curry won back-to-back MVPs and knows what it takes to win the regular-season award, so there are few players with the same perspective in the league today.
Embiid is currently leading the league in scoring with 33.0 points per game, with 10.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists per contest.
The 29-year-old center also shoots an impressive 54.2% from the floor and 33.0% from beyond the arc.
Despite the size comparison between Jokic and Embiid, these two superstar big men play the game in a completely different way.
Jokic is the ideal pass-first team player, with the Nuggets riding as the current top seed in the Western Conference at 52-26.
He’s also averaging close to a triple-double with 24.9 points, 11.9 rebounds and 9.9 assists per game.
Both players have impressive averages, and both will lead legitimate title contenders into the NBA playoffs.
Only time will tell how the voters view these two players and if Jokic will be one of the few players in league history to win NBA MVP for three straight seasons.
