The list of NBA centers to claim back-to-back MVP awards is not a long one.
Up until Nikola Jokic pulled off the feat over the past two seasons, it was a Mount Rushmore of sorts: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Moses Malone.
No Shaquille O’Neal. No Hakeem Olajuwon. No David Robinson. And, of course, no Joel Embiid.
The fact that no center had won the award in consecutive seasons — or even multiple MVPs, period — since the early 1980s is an indication of just how much the game has changed over the past four decades.