This recent hot take about the Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid is probably very flattering to the 2022 NBA MVP, but it also has a lot of fans at his neck, stirring up discussion on social media.
Is Joel Embiid Greatest Scorer Ever?
Embiid will probably go down as one of the greatest centers to ever play basketball. He’s physically dominant, he’s extremely skilled for a big man with his shooting and playmaking abilities, and he’s exceptional at getting to the line as well.
It’s honestly easy to say he’s the best if not one of the best scorers in the game right now, considering he is the consecutive two-time scoring champion and is currently tied for the lead early in this season.
Is Joel Embiid The Greatest Scorer In NBA History?
One analyst took it a step further, claiming that Embiid is the greatest scorer of all time.
NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Dan Roche wrote an article explaining why he believes Joel Embiid is statistically the greatest scorer of all time.
The main metric that Roche used was points per 36 minutes, a stat that shows how many points a player averages per minute if they all played 36 minutes.
From this metric, it shows that Embiid is at the top of that list.
Roche writes “Using Pts/36, Joel Embiid is far and away the NBA’s all-time leader. He holds a lead of nearly two full points on Doncic for second.”
He also uses a unique stat of points through a player’s first 400 games to show that Embiid is up there with some of the greats, including Michael Jordan, showing that he is an established GOAT scorer.
While Roche admits Embiid will most certainly not land anywhere near the upper echelon of the all-time points list, he believes that these smaller stats and numbers propel Embiid to the conversation as the greatest scorer of all time.
Dan Roche Metric Mindtricks?
Roche promptly received a lot of backlash. Fans weren’t having it.
“This is cap on a global scale,” the fan tweeted.
Normally statistics and data can help bolster an argument, especially in sports.
But fans and analysts who also watch basketball and formulate their own opinions, will be quick to disregard statistics that can be manipulated like the ones that Roche used.
This is why his opinion of trying to place Embiid on the grand scale of scoring wasn’t received well.
With Embiid aiming for his third straight scoring title after securing his first MVP, Roche might’ve been cooking with his stat-based argument, but as of right now, there are too many great scorers overall — retired and active — to propel Embiid, whose statistical dominance hasn’t equated to anything close to a championship, to MJ status.
