PHILADELPHIA — Joel Embiid is playing MVP-level basketball. But the pattern of games when the Philadelphia 76ers center has displayed it this season has made some NBA fans dismiss his candidacy. The noise from that direction is louder than the fantastic level of basketball Embiid is playing right now.

Embiid has dealt with illness and a few injuries so far this season, causing him to miss 10 total games. He can only miss eight more (with 44 left on the schedule) and still retain the 65-game mark that the league now requires for season awards like MVP. Some have pointed out how Embiid is often unavailable for games against great teams, especially on the road, to insinuate that the big man pads stats against inferior competition.

After his return from a three-game absence where he dropped 41 points and 10 rebounds in a resounding win over the Houston Rockets, Embiid was asked about those narratives and their potential impact on his MVP case.

“I don't know where that came from,” Joel Embiid said. “That's funny because every single team that I play against, I think I dominate and we win and put up numbers necessary to win. So, I think that's why you can't read too much into it because one of the main things that I see is that as soon as you use the name Joel Embiid, that's going to get you a lot of likes and that's going get you a lot of money. So as long as my name has a chance to help somebody make some money, then I'm for it. Keep trolling. I like it. I love it.”

What matters most for Embiid is his team's success. What media and fans say about him pales in comparison. But the way the game is talked about is impossible to ignore, even for those who take the court. Embiid has good reason not to care all that much about the narrative around him: in many instances, it's very stupid.

Should Embiid have fought through his injuries and illness and played when the 76ers' opponent was good, he would run the risk of being accused of only caring about regular-season accolades. Any bad performance would not have been met with sympathy for gutting it out. Doing what he does now — playing when he is available while managing his injuries when they arise — exposes him to what he's hearing: too few great games against great teams.

Of course, the narrative is easy to dispel. Embiid's season includes a 51-point game against the defensively stout Minnesota Timberwolves, hard-fought wins over the Oklahoma City Thunder and Boston Celtics and multiple games where he could sit the entire fourth quarter because the game was out of reach. His 34.9 points per game lead the NBA — and he averages that in just 34.0 minutes per game, along with 11.7 rebounds and a career-best 5.9 assists on 53.6 percent shooting from the field.

The way Embiid goes about his injury maintenance isn’t perfect. In a recent loss to the New York Knicks, when the game was well out of hand, he returned early in the fourth quarter seemingly to make one last run at trying to improbably steal a win. There was also his streak of 30-point-10-rebound game streak that was in jeopardy of ending. For whatever reason was more applicable, it didn’t justify Embiid coming back in, especially with a game scheduled for the next day and given his recent ankle issue.

However, by and large, uncontrollable injury issues define Embiid. They have since he came into the league and have in each of his playoff runs, where one thing or another hampers him physically. The superstar big man and the team have more firmly adopted a long view of building for the playoffs and not over-prioritizing the regular season. Embiid wants to play game in and game out but he knows that the playoffs are where he has to really make his mark.

Embiid understands that the championship is what matters the most. He has heard the slander over the last half-decade about his inability to get the 76ers past the second round of the playoffs. His teammates and coaches talk glowingly about his commitment to his craft and how badly he wants to win it all.

“I'm gonna give a shoutout to what he does off the court. He works, you know what I mean? He works,” Tyrese Maxey said. “I see him in the weight room when we're practicing when he can't play and he's trying to get back. No matter what the injury is — whether it was the ankle, when it was the knee, whatever it is — he worked. He just loves basketball. He loves winning. So, if he's not playing, then there's something wrong with him.”

Wrapped inside criticism of Joel Embiid missing games is the NBA making illogical decisions about its scheduling, especially now that players who miss too much time will be punished with ineligibility for awards.

Embiid and Nikola Jokic — two giants who have been billed as rivals for years amid their MVP races despite both being huge fans of the other — are scheduled to play each other for the first time this season on Tuesday night. Second nights of back-to-back games bring increased injury risk and often see teams when they play at their worst. Everyone who follows the NBA believes that the schedule should be favorable enough so that the headline stars are rested enough to play in high-profile games. Well, everyone except the schedule makers, at least.

Even without the context of Embiid's recent injury, putting the reigning champions' lone game in Philly on the second night of a back-to-back was pointed out as unwise the moment the season schedule dropped. With bated breath, people are waiting to see if a guy fresh off of a knee issue will play a second game in as many days…so that they can be ready to mock him if he doesn’t. Nick Nurse said that the expectation is that Embiid will play but there’s no sure thing with back-to-backs.

Embiid has also been criticized for not playing teams with above. 500 records on the road. To this point in the season, such opportunities (based on current records) have popped up seven times. Twice, against the Milwaukee Bucks and Thunder, he played. The 76ers lost a close one to the Bucks on opening night and defeated the Thunder.

One game against the Timberwolves was on the second night of a back-to-back. The league scheduling games on consecutive days is controversial and unpopular enough but adding in the layer of compressed travel, especially to a team in the opposite conference, leads right to difficult decisions.

Embiid missed a recent road trip that featured games against the Miami Heat and Orlando Magic after twisting his ankle in the home game prior to the road trip. The Houston Rockets, who are hovering around .500, were also a stop on this trip. Embiid was out for road games against the New Orleans Pelicans and Boston Celtics due to illness. The illness spread around the team during that time, forcing co-star Tyrese Maxey to miss the game in Boston, too.

Embiid speaks continually about how he wants to play as frequently as possible. He is pushing himself to play harder this season and play whenever he can. As he pointed out, he has no control over whether he gets sick or one of his joints experiences soreness. He and the team do what they can to manage his health throughout the season, which is made complicated by his injury history and his immense size.

What matters to the 76ers superstar is health in the playoffs.

“Like I said, the goal is to be ready for the playoffs,” Joel Embiid said. “If I can’t meet the criteria of 65 games and if I can't play the games [against] some of the best teams in the league, as long as I’m ready to be dominant when it gets to that time in April, that’s all I care about.”

The only way Embiid will shed the nutcase narratives is by winning it all. Accomplishing the extremely difficult feat of a championship is the one way a superstar can wipe the slate on whether they’re a choker, a phony a stat-padder and whatever else they may be in the eyes of (some) fans.

These expectations are gaudy but such is life in the NBA, where hot takes and nuance-devoid analysis still make waves in its media landscape. As Embiid mentions, traction on posts that slander him rakes in the dough. The same is true for most star players out there.

The 76ers and Joel Embiid have made the title their main goal, though not for any sort of course correction in the way people talk about them. But given that a primary storyline around an all-time great playing remarkably dominant basketball is whether he actually does it enough and against good enough competition, it would surely be very nice to achieve.