Newly crowned NBA MVP Joel Embiid hopes to be a role model after overcoming extraordinary odds, the Philadelphia 76ers center said on Wednesday.
The Cameroonian All-Star is only the second African-born player to earn MVP honors, following Nigerian-American Hakeem Olajuwon, who won the award for the 1993-94 season with the Houston Rockets, and said he never predicted a future in the NBA when he began playing.
"The probability of someone like me, you know, started playing basketball at 15, to get the chance to be the MVP of the league is, I'd say, negative zero," he said. "We don't have a lot of opportunities back in Africa in general to get to this point.