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Joel Embiid runs away with the race to win his long-awaited first MVP award.
The Knicks pull out a timely win at the Garden to even their series with the Heat.
And the Astros get some gifts from Travis Scott that lead manager Dusty Baker?
A little uncertain.
From Wondery, I am Matt Straub.
And I'm John Gonzalez.
It's Wednesday, May 3rd, and this is Starting Five.
Five sports stories to start your day.
All right, we begin today with the NBA where the MVP was announced on Tuesday and after
two straight seasons of finishing as runner-up, Joel Embiid finally claimed that award, John.
Yeah, third time's the charm for him, Matt.
And it wasn't particularly close either.
It was basically a three-way race between Embiid, Gianna Santo Campo, and the two-time
reigning MVP, Nikole Yokich.
But in the end, the Sixers center won pretty easily, Embiid earned 73 first-place votes
compared to 15 for Yokich who finished second.
Yeah, you'll remember that Embiid sat out his first two seasons with a foot injury and
had his minutes and games constantly load managed in subsequent seasons, which often
annoyed him.
But now after all that, he's the MVP.
Here's Embiid on his journey from his native Cameroon to being hailed as the best player
in the NBA.
For me, as you know, starting playing basketball so late, I 16, that's hard.
And to be able to be in this position, it obviously took a lot of work and a lot of
luck.
But I just want people to just remember that anything is possible.
Did not start playing until 16, Matt.
Yeah, trust the process indeed.
13 years later, the 29-year-old Embiid led the league in scoring for the second straight
season, averaging a little over 33 points per game on 54.8% shooting, both of which were
career highs.
He also averaged a little over 10 rebounds per game, so a double, double per game for
Joe, along with 4.2 assists and 1.7 blocks per game.
Yeah, really good numbers.
And as always, Matt, he killed it at both ends of the floor, which I think is a big reason
why some Sixers fans, perhaps myself included, were frustrated that he didn't win the award
until now, because his defensive impact is just so significant.
Now of course, he's also dealt with a lot of injury issues in his career.
He missed game one of the Sixers' second round series against the Celtics with a knee
sprain, a game where the Sixers managed to steal win on the road in Boston.
But we'll see whether Embiid will be back on the court for game two, which is tonight
Wednesday.
TNT's Ernie Johnson asked Embiid about that very thing on Tuesday evening, to which Embiid
said, quote, we shall see with a very, Joe L like smart on his face, Matt.
John, I had no idea you were a Sixers fan until literally just this moment.
I can't believe it hasn't come up.
In other NBA news from Tuesday, according to Sean's, Trania of the athletic, the Memphis
Grizzlies have decided they will not resign unrestricted free agent Dylan Brooks under
any circumstances, a tough divorce there.
And we learned on Tuesday via Shams at Chris Paul, who has an injured groin is expected
to be reevaluated in a week.
That means that the sons who are already down to owe to the Nuggets likely won't have their
point guard for at least the next three games.
All right.
Staying with the NBA, there were two playoff games on Tuesday night, including the latest
chapter in the next heat rivalry with the next getting a desperately needed win at home,
1111, 105 to even the series at one one.
John, the heat were without Jimmy Butler in this one due to that ankle injury.
He sustained in game one and for a very long minute there, it looked like the Miami role
players were actually going to steal this game.
Caleb Martin gave Vincent Max Trus and Duncan Robinson when he combined 14 for 35 from three
point range.
That's a tidy 40%.
And the heat were up 93 87 with about seven minutes left after Caleb Martin triple, but
the next promptly went on a 14 to three run, a run that included a three pointer from Jalen
Brunson to break a 96 96 tie.
Vincent gets a good look and it's off the mark.
Rebounded by Grimes for the lead.
Oh, yeah.
Jalen Brunson from downtown.
Stars were out in the garden and they were going wild at that point.
The Knicks took over the lead during that run and they did not give it back though.
Miami did make it a little bit sweaty late.
Ultimately though, the Knicks got a combined 79 points from Brunson, Julius Randall and
RJ Barrett.
The RJ Barrett game.
Yeah.
What a nice for left handed basketball players long awaited all across the land.
They also got a near triple double and a huge triple late from Josh Hart as the Knicks got
their first second round home playoff win since 2013.
We now have to wait until Saturday for game three actually in Miami.
And if you're looking for something to do in the meantime, check out Wednesday's episode
of our other podcast, the lead a closer look at the mastermind behind the Miami heat.
Eric Spolstra.
Highly recommend that'll be a good one.
And in Tuesday nights, late playoff action, game one of the Steph versus LeBron saga, warriors
versus the Lakers.
What a showdown as promised with the Lakers picking up a huge road win, 117, 112, Anthony
Davis, monster double double, 30 points and 23 rebounds and hey, five assists and four
blocks to go with it.
The Lakers needed every bit of that.
What a series this is going to be Matt game to coming our way in San Francisco on Thursday
night.
Moving from the NBA playoffs to the NHL postseason, the second round series between the Panthers
and the Maple Leafs got underway on Tuesday with Florida winning game one in Toronto,
Florida two.
Yeah, the Leafs had two early power play opportunities in this one, Matt, but the Panthers
batted them both away, Florida went up to Toronto, then tied the game.
And then as they've done repeatedly this postseason, the Panthers kept grinding and
claimed another tough road win.
This time, thanks in part to the go ahead goal from Carter, Vahaghi to put them up three
two in the second period.
Really nice check by me, to deny Toronto a scoring chance.
Here's a break for Hagees and he shoots and scores.
That was for Hagees 11th career playoff goal, which set a new Panthers franchise record.
He's having quite the postseason, Matt.
If not for Vahaghi scoring the game winner in game seven in Boston to bounce the Bruins
from the playoffs, the Panthers might not even be here in what is a very unexpected and intriguing
matchup.
Florida obviously got rid of the Bruins and continued the president's trophy curse.
Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs, all they did was win a series for the first time in nearly
two decades, Matt, by dispatching the Tampa Bay Lightning, who, oh yeah, had reached the
Stanley Cup finals in each of the last three seasons.
Now the Panthers have a one-nothing lead in this series, but Matt, either Florida or
Toronto will be in the conference finals after this.
And I don't know about you, but I think it's doubtful that many people outside of Florida
or Toronto even imagined that.
Right, definitely.
And in the other NHL postseason action from Tuesday night, the surging Seattle Kraken
beat the Dallas Stars in a wild back and forth game in game one of their second round series.
All right, next up, we go to the NFL.
Tuesday was the deadline for teams to pick up or decline the fifth year option on players
from the 2020 draft and for the Chiefs, when it comes to their first round pick from that
draft, the answer was no thanks.
Yeah, that would be running back Clyde Edwards, you layer the last pick of the first round
in 2020.
And given all the hype that surrounded C.E.H. after that pick, you may remember people scrambling
to take him in their fantasy drafts that year.
I feel so seen.
Yeah.
It's weird to think that it has suddenly come to this point, but the fact is Edwards
you layer hasn't been very durable or productive in his three seasons in the NFL.
He's averaged just 11 games played and a little over 700 yards from scrimmage per season.
Nevertheless, she's GM Brett Veach when talking on Monday sounded optimistic about the 24
year olds outlook for this upcoming year.
We're excited though for Clyde this season actually was the first guy I saw in the building
today in tremendous shape, but new to say we're excited to have him back in the building
today and look forward to hopefully healthy 2023 campaign from him.
Really healthy is the operative phrase there.
It's also worth noting that the same day the chiefs declared their decision on C.E.H.
They also announced that they've signed 31 year old running back, Jerick McKinnon to a
new contract.
The veteran appeared in all 17 games last season, something Edwards the layer has yet
to come close to doing and McKinnon scored 10 touchdowns, a really reliable outlet for
Patrick Mahomes in the passing game.
So it's going to be fascinating to see what the chiefs get from C.E.H. in his prove it
year.
Fascinating John is the long list of first round picks from 2020, whose fifth year options
were declined.
That list includes Chase Young, Isaiah Simmons, McKibectin and Edwards the layer.
All told, it's 14 players from that first round.
These options were declined as nearly half of the first round picks from 2020.
Yeah, Godspeed.
And in other 2020 first round related news, the number 26 overall pick new Packers starting
quarterback Jordan Love did not get his fifth year option picked up.
But that's basically just a technicality because Love got a one year contract extension through
2024.
According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, he could make as much as 22.5 million in the final year
of his deal.
We wrap up today's episode with the Houston Astros and yes, Travis Scott.
Earlier this week, the rapper gifted pairs of some very rare sneakers to his hometown
team as a thank you for winning the World Series.
Players were thrilled, John, while the manager was happy, but maybe a little bit unsure.
Yeah, I love the story.
So Scott sent all the Astros pairs of his Air Jordan 1 low olives.
Now, if you're not in the sneakers, I know you are Matt.
I am as well.
All of Scott's collaborations with Jordan end up being extremely rare, extremely hard
to find and inevitably extremely expensive on the secondary market.
In theory, the sneakers cost $150 in retail.
But that's a lie because you can't find them in stores and finding them online means paying
somewhere between say $450 or potentially upwards of $1,000 per pair.
Yeah, so the players obviously, as you mentioned, they were thrilled and manager Dusty Baker
was also thrilled except he didn't seem to know exactly what he had on his hands here,
Matt.
Here's Baker on the surprise gift.
First I walked in and said, hey, man, we want to see your expression when he, you know,
when he gave me a surprise for you.
So I felt very special.
I thought he just gave me to myself.
Everybody else have a pair, but that's very, very, very generous of Travis and Will when
I think.
All right, but it goes further here, Matt.
My favorite part is that Baker, who is in fairness to him, 73 years old, didn't realize
what a big deal this is until he called his son and then a son explained why the players
were all freaking out.
So Dusty, I can imagine him just wear them around the house or something or maybe the
dugout.
But who's your bet for the first Astros player to list them on a reseller app?
Oh, how about not a player?
I think maybe it may just be Dusty himself.
You listen, I quote, he seemed a little bit slighted maybe that Travis gave them to everyone
else and not just him.
So I for one will be on the lookout to bring home that pair of Dusty Baker, Travis Scott,
Jordan one, low olives for my own collection and come to think of it.
They're pretty expensive.
So if you want to split them, John, we can each take one shoe.
Yeah.
I'm in.
We share Jordan's.
Yeah, exactly.
All right, that's it for us today from Wondery.
I'm John Gonzalez and I am Matt Straub.
Thanks for listening.
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