The only one in history! He won the MVP but didn’t even make it to the conference finals. Is he really the most popular MVP?

As the highest personal honor in the NBA, players who win the regular season MVP, whether they win the championship or not, are the strongest players in the NBA at least for that season. However, looking back at the history of the NBA, almost all players who have won the regular season MVP have experience in the NBA Finals. Even Derrick Rose and Steve Nash, who have never entered the Finals, have also reached the Eastern and Western finals. But among this group of people, there is an exception, and he is Joel Embiid.

Since entering the NBA in 2014, he has entered the 12th year of his career and has never even appeared on the stage of the conference finals. Therefore, his MVP has been questioned. Let us review Embiid's MVP season and subsequent performance to see how he performed and whether he is worthy of the MVP trophy!

defeated Jokic to reach the top, but stopped in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Back in the 22-23 season, Joel Embiid had the best performance of his career this year, averaging 33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1 steal and 1.7 blocks per game. The data was extremely luxurious. Not only did he retain the scoring title, but he also defeated Nikola Jokic of the same year for the first time and entered the coveted All-season First Team.

In fact, the 76ers had a good record this year. Under the leadership of Embiid, and with the assistance of James Harden, Taylor Maxey and others, they eventually ranked third in the Eastern Conference behind the Bucks and Celtics. So there was no suspense in the end. Embiid successfully defeated Jokic, whose statistics had declined, and won the first MVP trophy of his career. And it is this trophy that gives countless 76ers fans something to look forward to. They hope that in the ninth year of his career, Embiid can break the curse of the Eastern Conference Finals and reach new heights.

However, what was unexpected was that Embiid encountered Waterloo during the playoffs. In the first round, they faced the Nets, which traded away Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. They encountered no pressure and directly completed the sweep. However, they were deeply affected by injuries. Embiid only played three of the games, averaging only 20 points, 11.3 rebounds and 4 assists per game. He did not look like an MVP player at all.

Not only that, after entering the semifinals and facing the Celtics, he directly missed the first game. Fortunately, with Harden's explosive performance, the team won its first victory. After returning, although he only scored 15 points in the second game, Embiid performed pretty well in the next four games, averaging 30.7 points and 10.7 rebounds per game, dragging the series into a tiebreaker. However, what was originally thought to be a game where Mars collides with the earth, turned out to be Jayson Tatum's game for the gods. He scored 50 points and helped the Celtics defeat the 76ers at home. As the MVP, Embiid only scored 15 points and 8 rebounds, and was eliminated in an embarrassing manner.

suffered from injuries and only played 58 games in 2 seasons.

Just when everyone was expecting Embiid to lead the 76ers to avenge their disgrace in the 23-24 season, injuries struck. Embiid only played 39 games in total this season. Although he averaged luxurious data of 34.7 points, 11 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.7 blocks per game, his attendance rate was unfortunately not satisfactory. If it weren't for Maxi's further improvement and becoming the team's boss this season, averaging 25.9 points, 3.7 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game, and winning the Most Improved Player Award, otherwise the 76ers would not even be able to enter the playoffs.

However, in this year's playoffs, Embiid still proved himself. Although he was defeated by the Knicks again and fell in the first round of the playoffs, Embiid averaged 33 points, 10.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game, including an amazing performance of 50 points in a single game, which saved some face.

Soon, as Paul George's contract with the Clippers expired, the team signed George with the maximum salary, once again forming a dream Big Three combination. Not only that, the team also signed a number of strong players, and just helped the US team win the gold medal at the Paris Olympics. Embiid seems to be ushering in the dawn again.

But this time, injuries still didn't let him go. The knee injury that never healed caused him to play only 19 games this season. His average data dropped to 23.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game, and his efficiency was even more appalling. To make matters worse, he really couldn't hold on in the middle of the season and could only declare he was out for the season and undergo surgery in the hope of a full recovery. The 76ers had no choice but to give up this season. In the end, they missed the playoffs and suffered an extremely humiliating season.

His comeback status is not good, and there may be variables in the future.

Entering the offseason, Embiid continues to struggle with injuries, and the media with good intentions directly speculated that Embiid's recovery was not ideal and he might choose to retire. However, Embiid and the team media quickly denied it and released some training videos of Embiid's recovery phase. But it is obvious that Embiid's speed and style of play cannot be compared with the MVP season.

Not only that, in the preseason, his playing time was also strictly controlled, and he only played 19 minutes in the last game. After entering the new season, he only played 20 minutes. The team's decision this time is hard not to remind people of Yao Ming in the 2009-10 season. At that time, the Rockets basically implemented the 20-minute playing time limit in order to protect Yao Ming, but they still could not avoid Yao Ming's injury.. Embiid, who is now 31 years old, may still not fully recover from his knee injury. If he is really not spared and suffers from injuries again in the future, perhaps what awaits him will be a very pessimistic result, which no one wants to see.