Joel Embiid’s MVP push falters after night off in Denver

The Philadelphia 76ers, who surpassed Boston in the East standings for a brief moment a week prior, have now lost four of their last five games. The 3-seed feels like destiny and the Sixers appear content to prioritize rest over seeding — smart, considering the team’s recent history with postseason injuries.

That said, resting players can be a controversial strategy. Especially when it involves sitting your MVP candidate against his primary competition for the award. The Sixers decided to let Embiid rest his lingering calf injury on Monday night, letting the role players scrap and claw their way to a respectable loss in Denver.

Rather than getting the most hyped individual showdown of the season, NBA fans were treated to a relative snoozefest and an onslaught of disingenuous, hot-takey discourse. Embiid is ducking that smoke, claimed ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins. We have to craft some sort of narrative, because god forbid a player simply rest his injured leg instead of playing a third game in four nights on the road.

Is 76ers’ Joel Embiid still the frontrunner to win MVP?

Letting one game determine your opinion on the MVP — especially when the player literally did not play in the game — is beyond ridiculous. There’s a credible case to be made that Embiid has missed too many games relative to Jokic (14 to 8) when splitting hairs in such a tight MVP race. But to act like Embiid’s decision was born out of image preservation is simply disingenuous considering the All-Star’s track record of showing up for big games. He quite literally gave Jokic 47, 18, and 5 when the teams played two months ago.

What instigated this particularly harsh storm of discourse, however, was an interview Embiid did with Shams Charania of The Athletic. Naturally, it dropped the morning of his supposed matchup with Jokic and the Nuggets. In the interview, Embiid laid out his thoughts on past miscarriages of justice in the MVP race and why he believes he deserves the award (even if he doesn’t care about it anymore, allegedly).

It’s good for players to want validation and his competitive nature has long been part of the appeal with Embiid. He sincerely believes in his talent and he wants to prove doubters wrong. That said, blatantly criticizing Jokic’s defense and going on about how your really don’t care about the award tends to give the exact opposite impression. To have that article drop the morning of the game, followed by Embiid not playing in the game, was the…