Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid was passed over for the All-NBA teams in 2019-20, after two consecutive years as a Second Team selection. Anthony Davis and Nikola Jokic were chosen for the First and Second teams, respectively, while Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert earned a nod on the Third Team over the Sixers' big man.
Apparently, the Sixers' center still hasn't gotten over it.
Speaking to ESPN's Jackie MacMullan, Embiid was frank when expressing his disagreement with Gobert's selection.
“I agree that Anthony Davis had a better season than me. [Nikola] Jokic? That's debatable. But Rudy Gobert? No offense, but he [averaged] 15 [points] and 13 [rebounds] and I had my 23 and 12, and that's kind of a big difference. I think my numbers were better. But people didn't want to vote for me because our team didn't do well.”
Rudy Gobert — whom the Jazz recently awarded with a five-year, $205 million supermax extension — averaged 15.1 points, 13.5 rebounds, and two blocks per game in 2019-20, and finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting.
Embiid averaged 23.0 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game last season for the Sixers, but his production and game-to-game effort noticeably dipped from 2018-19.
More significantly, Gobert contributed 10.7 win shares to a 44-win Utah Jazz team in the deep Western Conference, while Embiid registered 6.0 win shares to a 43-win Sixers squad that was largely considered a disappointment.
Joel Embiid claims he will use the perceived All-NBA snub as a motivating factor this season.
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