76ers Fan Vote Reveals MVP, Future Stars and the Team's Most Chaotic Personalities
We asked, you answered, and now, we can officially reveal the results for the Philadelphia 76ers' batch of year-end awards!
Shout-out to everyone who participated. You played a pivotal role in helping us dole out invaluable hardware. From the Sixers' MVP and most underrated player to their best trash-talker and zombie apocalypse savior, you covered all the most important bases.
So, who won each category? Let's get to the big reveals.
Stats accurate as of Sunday, April 12. Contract data via Spotrac.
Who Is the Most Valuable Player?
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Winner: Tyrese Maxey
Tyrese Maxey has a chokehold on the Sixers' MVP, with 89 percent of the vote. It's not an unexpected development, but it's certainly come sooner than the organization anticipated—and probably hoped.
This team now lives and dies with every Maxey possession. The time he recently missed was treated as a death knell. His return was more than a relief; it was everything. He is their only All-NBA candidate, and the driving force behind any Sixers fans who dare to dream about this team making noise in the playoffs.
Once the reflexive No. 1, Joel Embiid (6 percent) wasn't even a given No. 2. His moments of dominance and offensive adaptability have a case, but VJ Edgecombe's availability (3 percent), defensive chutzpah and crunch-time outside shot-making potentially have a stronger one.
Who Is Most Underrated?
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Winner: Dominick Barlow
Can we all finally come together, as a family, united in appreciation for the defensive workload thrust upon Dominick Barlow's shoulders? And how he's handling it so well? Thank you to the 51 percent of you who replied "yes."
Quentin Grimes' reliability is flying under the radar, which explains why 29 percent of you voted for him The three-ball accuracy has slumped, but he's closer to 60 percent inside the arc than 55 percent and remains an operable defender.
Third-place finisher Adem Bona, improbably, leads the Sixers in points per shot attempt and is holding opponents, many of which are much bigger than him, to sub-55-percent shooting at the rim. Philly doesn't navigate its thorny frontcourt reality as well without him.
Who Is the Best Athlete?
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Winner: VJ Edgecombe
While most of us expected VJ Edgecombe to win, yours truly thought Tyrese Maxey would make it something of a conversation. He didn't. Edgecombe scooped up 79 percent of votes. Maxey received 18 percent.
Giving Edgecombe a runway in transition or ample breathing room on the wing is a recipe for surrendering poster smashes. Also, who doesn't love a guard who's a genuine lob threat?
Maxey has more dunks this season than Andre Drummond, but it's his blow-by speed that encapsulates his athleticism. He moves like a rocket breaking the sound barrier, even with the ball in his hands.
Who Is Most Likely To Be a 1st-Time All-Star In the Next 5 Years?
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Winner: VJ Edgecombe
VJ Edgecombe or Jared McCain was the only possible option here. About 1 percent of you voted for Adem Bona anyway. I respect it.
Cannonballing into All-Star territory will require Edgecombe getting more separation on his self-created jumpers—and making them at a higher clip—but he has the outlines of a future staple otherwise. He competes defensively, he's an electric transition threat, and there's an "it" factor to how he carries himself in higher-stakes moments.
Who Has the Best Contract?
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Winner: VJ Edgecombe
Another decided victory for VJ Edgecombe! He earned 56 percent of the vote. Only Dominick Barlow (36 percent) landed within the same area code.
Drafting someone who could make the All-Star team while still on his rookie deal is a cheat code. That's exactly what the Sixers have in Edgecombe.
Over the next three years, he'll make under $40 million total. That averages out to under 8 percent of the salary cap for someone who is already or will soon be Philly's second-best player.
Who Has the Worst Contract?
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Winner: Paul George
Written without a hint of snark: Awesome stuff on the loyalty front, Sixers.
Joel Embiid's three-year, $187.1 million extension kicks in next season and is slated to take up, on average, more than 35 percent of the cap over its life. We know what he can be at his very best. We also know his very best is only available in micro these days.
This isn't just the worst deal on the Sixers' cap sheet. It's a worst-in-the-league candidate, if not lock.
Paul George won this category anyway.
With 57 percent of the vote.
The two years and $110.7 million remaining on contract aren't great, but the shorter terms are more favorable to the team.
Picking him isn't just about pledging allegiance to Embiid. The latter has a higher ceiling when he's at his very best. Plus, though the final legs of George's deal were always going to be dicey, Philly was no doubt hoping the first half wouldn't go down as a disaster.
Who Is the Best Trash-Talker?
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Winner: Joel Embiid
Joel Embiid's availability may be in question. With 56 percent of the vote here, his ability to effectively trash talk is not. Embiid is notoriously chatty and doesn't hide it from the cameras. He might be the biggest trash-talker we've ever seen. Like, literally. He's huge.
VJ Edgecombe (9 percent) guaranteed himself a top-three spot on the ballot before ever making his regular-season debut. Just ask Elijah Harkless.
Kelly Oubre Jr. finished second (33 percent), which speaks to the far-flung application of his chattiness nature. His trash-talking isn't just for opponents, or for his teammates. He'll shower fans with some smack-talk, too.
Who Is Most Likely To Have a Burner Account?
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Winner: Joel Embiid
Joel Embiid slinked past Daryl Morey first place, receiving 42 percent of the vote compared to Philly's lead executive getting 35 percent of it.
To his credit, the Sixers' resident behemoth has come a long way from using social media to court celebrity crushes, recruit LeBron James, promoting the consumption of Shirley Temples and the like. Just so we're clear, "come a long way" doesn't mean he's quit. It could. It could also mean he is doing it under another name.
"Anything Bryan Colangelo can do, I can do better" has at least a puncher's chance of being Morey's rallying cry while he fires off late-night tweets and skeets and replies from cloak-and-dagger socials about how Jared McCain is just Jonny Flynn with snazzier nail polish.
Paul George coming in third place is self-explanatory. Playoff P, Podcast P, Pseudonym P—you get the drift.
Who Are You Taking With You Into the Zombie Apocalypse?
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Winner: Tyrese Maxey
This was genuinely the toughest category to analyze. Three players received more than 25 percent of the votes, so it seems y'all agree.
Tyrese Maxey won with 33 percent of selections. He is perhaps the NBA's fastest player with the ball in his hands. I am going to assume that speed scales to outrunning zombies while cradling me like a newly born puppy.
I'm not saying VJ Edgecombe (26 percent) having poise and fearlessness in crunch time is an analog for engineering the survival of the human race amid a zombie apocalypse. I'm not not saying it, either.
Kyle Lowry (27 percent) is sinisterly smart, a real anti-hero. The undead don't stand a chance if he's plotting our escape and survival.
Who Is Most Likely To Be Playing Overseas In 2 Seasons?
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Winner: Cameron Payne
For a category in which most gravitate toward younger unknowns, exactly one-third of voters instead selected Cameron Payne. And you know what? Fair enough.
Payne didn't appear in a game this season until the Sixers, who obviously had too many guards, signed him after the All-Star break. He's approaching the overseas portion of his career arc—which, in his case, has a not-insignificant chance of ending with him getting a statue on another continent.
Dalen Terry (21 percent) and MarJon Beauchamp (31 percent) have spent their entire careers on the outer-skirts of NBA rotations, so rolling with either one of them was perfectly acceptable, too. And I can only assume Tyrese Martin (12 percent) is going to run out of Atlantic Division teams to play for at some point.
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