The NBA's reigning MVP is once again in superstar form so far in 2023-24. The Philadelphia 76ers' big man Joel Embiid won last year's scoring title by averaging 33.1 points per game and is on track to surpass that mark, and possibly win a second straight MVP honor. There's still the majority of the season to go, but the man has been on an absolute tear of late. On Wednesday, he punished the West's top squad, the Timberwolves, with a 51-point night in the 76ers' 127-113 victory for his 13th straight game scoring at least 30 points.
There's still four months to play, but the way Embiid is rolling the season's MVP award could be a foregone conclusion if he maintains this pace. His 13th straight game of 30-plus points just extends his own franchise record. Embiid is racking up some crazy numbers this season. He's scored 843 points in just 819 minutes played.
In the history of the NBA, only one player -- Wilt Chamberlain -- has recorded more points than minutes in a year with a minimum of 1,000 points scored during in a single campaign. In the 1961-62 season, Chamberlain's third year in the league, he scored 4,029 points in 3,882 minutes while playing for the Philadelphia Warriors. That, of course, was the season he, in his age 25 season, averaged an otherworldly 50.4 points per game, while playing a ridiculous 48.5 minutes per contest.
For context, Michael Jordan came close to matching the points-over-minutes feat, coincidentally also in his third year in the league. In the 1986-87 campaign, Jordan's age 23 season, the Bulls' star tallied 3,041 points in 3,280 minutes. No other player has ever come closer.
The fact that Embiid is doing this in his age 29 season, his eighth season of playing in the NBA, is worth noting. Embiid's physicality has been a factor too. He leads the league with 11.7 free-throw attempts per game, and he's using an 88.96% shooting percentage -- the best of his career -- to boost those scoring numbers. Overall, in 24 games this season, the 76ers center is averaging 35.1 points per game while playing 34.1 minutes per contest.
Embiid has missed three games thus far this season and so he won't reach the 80-game level like Jordan and Chamberlain did in their historic scoring campaigns and he likely will not rack up the minutes that they did either, but there can be no denying that he has been in rare company this season. Should Embiid continue to dominate, he might just be the one to join Chamberlain in the record books.