Joel Embiid Named All-Star Starter For Eastern Conference
On Thursday night, the starters for the upcoming All-Star game were named, among them was Joel Embiid.
For Embiid, this will mark his seventh consecutive All-Star selection, this year making it into the Eastern Conference's frontcourt alongside Jayson Tatum and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The selection shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone for a few reasons, firstly, the reigning MVP remained consistently under Antetokounmpo at the top of the frontcourt voting numbers, while also collecting three separate Player of the Week nods up until this point, with his most recent one coming only last week.
The second and even more obvious answer would be his performance in the first half of the season, which has managed to trump his pre-All-Star game numbers from his MVP campaign, putting up a league-high 36 points per game on an efficient 54 percent shooting, which has helped him go on a 21 game streak of scoring 30 or more points.
This comes after last year when Embiid was snubbed from the original list of starters, only managing to sneak his way in as a replacement for the then-injured Kevin Durant.
In last year's match, the Cameroonian superstar would be drafted by Lebron James, going on to score 32 points in the All-Star game.
Elsewhere on the Eastern Conference's team sits the injured Tyrese Haliburton and Damian Lillard, who will make up the backcourt.
The 73rd NBA All-Star game is set to take place on February 18 at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indiana, with tip-off scheduled for 8 p.m. EST.
