Joel Embiid is entering the 2020/21 NBA season with fresh expectations, finding motivation everywhere to prove everybody wrong and win a championship with the Philadelphia 76ers in a very competitive Eastern Conference.
The center has been one of the best players in the league for some years but last year his level decreased a little, as his team did. The Sixers were swept in the first round of the 2020 NBA playoffs by the Boston Celtics and now they’ll try to change their face.
JoJo is ready to start a new season with a lot of motivation, especially after he was snubbed from every All-NBA team at the end of the campaign. Embiid had some interesting things to say about all the players selected to the teams, taking some shots at the best centers in the game.
Joel Embiid takes a shot at Nikola Jokic, Rudy Gobert for All-NBA team snub
In case you don’t remember, Anthony Davis was selected to the First All-NBA team while Jokic earned Second All-NBA honors. The biggest issue for Embiid, though, was Rudy Gobert, whom Embiid believes wasn’t better than him. Talking to ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan, Embiid expressed his disagreement with the selections.
“I agree that Anthony Davis had a better season than me. [Nikola] Jokic? That’s debatable. But Rudy Gobert? No offense, but he [averaged] 15 [points] and 13 [rebounds] and I had my 23 and 12, and that’s kind of a big difference. I think my numbers were better. But people didn’t want to vote for me because our team didn’t do well.”
JoJo made it clear that he will use that snub as a motivation for this season. The Sixers debut against the Washington Wizards with a new head coach, Doc Rivers, and Joel wants to take the most advantage of that. When talking about his snub, Embiid said:
“That’s OK, because I will use it to motivate me so there is no chance that anyone can make that mistake again,” he told MacMullan.
Embiid averaged 23.0 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game last season for the Sixers, dropping his level from the 2018/19 season, whenPhilly was considered an NBA Finals favorite.
