KU Jayhawks’ Bill Self sees ‘more opportunities’ for 76ers’ Joel Embiid to win NBA MVP
Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self acknowledges it was “disappointing” to learn former KU big man Joel Embiid of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers placed second in MVP voting to Denver’s Nikola Jokic for the second straight year.
“I personally think he (Embiid) is going to have more opportunities to win it moving forward,” Self said Tuesday as an in-person guest on the ESPN morning radio show of Keyshawn Johnson, Jay Williams and Max Kellerman at Pier 17 studios in New York.
“I don’t talk to Joe all the time, but we talk enough to know that would have meant a lot to him and certainly would have meant a lot to our school to promote that the MVP of the league is from Kansas.
“So much is put into the awards. In no way shape or form does that in my mind, define what kind of player the guy is. He’s already had a Hall of Fame type career. I still think he’s scratching the surface of what he can be. Jokic deserved it. He had an unbelievable year, but still though, to me, when you think about the best five players in the world, Joel Embiid is definitely one of them.”
Embiid, 28, played at KU during the 2013-14 season, turning pro after one year of college ball.
“When we had him at KU,” Self said of the Cameroon native, “he’d only played ball for two years. He played high school ball at Montverde (Academy in Florida). They had a youngster, Dakari Johnson, who went to Kentucky. Joel couldn’t get in the game (behind starter Johnson).
“His senior year he transfers to The Rock School in Gainesville (Florida). Fortunately we had an in with him. Our assistant, Norm Roberts, whose son played at The Rock when he (Roberts) was assistant at Florida ... I watched him with Norm one time. I told Norm, ‘He’ll be the best player we’ll ever coach.’’’
Self said he made that declaration because the young Embiid had “feet, competitiveness, agility, touch, intellect. One thing people that don’t know Joe may not realize is his IQ, his intellect is off the charts. We’ve had Devonte Graham, Aaron Miles, Sherron Collins. I could go down the line and say they probably have as good a feel as anybody.
“Joe has as good a feel as any of those guys. He picks up things so quick. I actually said after the first day of practice when he told me, ’Coach, I’m not good enough. I’m going to have to redshirt.’ I said, ‘Well you are going to be the No. 1 pick in the draft, so we probably don’t redshirt those guys.’
“He was just different. He’s competitive. We are not surprised at all with his success. I’ll be honest. I didn’t know he’d be arguably the best big man in the world missing two years of pro basketball (to start his career because of injury). But he is.”
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 10:07 AM.
