In late March, in the back of a black sprinter van zipping through the streets of Los Angeles, I asked Joel Embiid about the importance of winning MVP. Embiid was in the final stages of his best NBA season, where he played more games (68), averaged more points (an NBA-best 30.6) and handed out more assists (4.2) than in any of his previous seasons.
His answer: Winning matters more.
“You can't win this type of stuff if you don't win,” Embiid told me. “So it doesn't matter. Let's say if I average 35 on a bad team, I can't be the MVP of the league, because I'm not winning.