2023-05-03 12:00:47
It is a half-mocking, half-tender video that resurfaces on the networks this Wednesday, May 3 morning. There is a big guy of 2.13m uncomfortable with the ball in hand, launched alone on the counter-attack to score an easy basket, without any defender to hinder him. Unable to find his bearings, he is at the edge of the sideline, the basket in his back, when he raises his head, forced to make a desperate pass. Hard to believe, but the young person in question is indeed Joel Embiid, elected this Wednesday, May 3, MVP of the 2022-2023 NBA season, an unofficial title which designates the best basketball player in the world. Another video, which turns much more than the first, shows the colossus taking his head in one hand at the time of the announcement, a broad smile crossing his face.
Second behind the Serbian Nikola Jokic in 2021 and 2022, here is finally the Cameroonian rewarded after another auspicious exercise: like last year, Embiid finished top scorer in the championship, running at 33.1 points at 54.8% success rate, 10.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.7 blocks on average, and improved his statistics in almost every sector compared to the previous year. Beyond the numbers, he is acclaimed for his considerable impact on the Sixers, third in the regular season and still in the running for the NBA title.
Unimaginable for someone who had never played basketball a decade earlier. “I swear to God, my life is a movie”released the Sixers player in 2018 as an introduction to discuss the meteoric rise that was his in The Players Tribune, a site offering a platform for professional athletes to express themselves. Nothing predestined the Sixers pivot to become an NBA star. Growing up in Yaoundé, he first tried football, the king of sports in his country, then volleyball, where he should have made a career, in accordance with the wishes of his father, a colonel in the army and a former handball player. But the “Process” has just discovered basketball very late, at 16 years old. He is infatuated with it, nourished by the exploits of his new idol Kobe Bryant.
The following summer, he was invited to an internship organized by Luc Mbah a Moute, former resident of the Milwaukee Bucks. He didn’t show up on the first day – “I was too scared”, he confesses. The next day he is there. And makes a strong impression, barely knowing the basics of the game.
YouTube et DVD
“Two months later, I was flying to Florida to attend high school.” That of the Montverde Academy, through which Mbah a Moute passed, but plays little. The workouts are tough. We mock him: “too thin”, “too soft”. He bounces back to Rock School, in Gainesville in the same state, before continuing his journey at the University of Kansas in the fall of 2012. He hangs on, progresses, begins to really impose, but realizes that he misses him a long distance shoot to complete its range. So he finds the method himself on… YouTube. “One evening, in the search bar, I write “how to shoot three points”. No… “How to shoot with the right gesture”. No… Then I typed the magic words. “Whites shooting three-pointers”. I know it’s a stereotype, but have you ever seen an average 30-year-old white guy shoot three-pointers? The elbow is in, the knees are bent… the sequence is perfect”describes the one who excels away from the basket, for an interior.
At the same time, every evening, he puts on this same DVD, sent by one of his former Cameroonian coaches, on which are engraved the exploits of the Nigerian Hakeem Olajuwon, one of the greatest pivots in history, twice crowned NBA champion with the Rockets (1994, 1995), and first African before him to win the MVP trophy. His technique, his movements, his agility, his defensive toughness make him a perfect model for young Joel.
“Process” started
When he thinks he has done the hardest part by being drafted (selected) in 3rd position by the Philadelphia Sixers in 2014, a right foot injury keeps him away from the courts for two long years. Exile weighed down by the accidental death of his brother Arthur, whom he was never able to see again after arriving in the United States. Some fear the “flop”. Wrongly: ultra-dominant in attack and dissuasive force in defense, very mobile despite his 2.13 m and 127 kg, he immediately made a place for himself in Philadelphia, therefore a name in the NBA, and could not believe play against Kobe Bryant. “The Process”, his new nickname, is on: he has six selections to the All-Star Game, finishes as the league’s top scorer for the past two seasons, with a personal best of 59 points in a game.
Like Jokic before him, only a league title is missing. So far, the play-off games have reserved him failures with Philly and injuries, including a fractured frontal bone in 2022. A sprained right knee currently prevents him from helping his team in play- off. A return to the courts could come this week in the Eastern Conference semi-final against Boston (1-0).
Embiid also has ambitions for the national team. But with which country? Recently, he obtained American citizenship after having French, without having yet decided which nation he would play for on the international stage. The federations obviously working behind the scenes to catch the big fish at all costs. For now, tell him stay “always hesitant in his thinking” on the France team and “probably won’t play” for the Blues at the next World Cup, said coach Vincent Collet on April 29, during a press video conference on the occasion of the draw for the 2023 World Cup (August 25-September 10). “But that does not call into question the fact that he can play with us next year. […] He is going to get married and it really falls into the wrong period since it is during the preparation. It makes it really difficult for him to be there.” admits Collet, who hopes so for the 2024 Paris Games.
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