The 70 Sixer

Joel Embiid is the greatest scoring center since ... uh, Kareem?

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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The Infant Hercules; Joshua Reynolds; 1785-89

Working backward, here’s a list of centers who have won the NBA scoring title since the merger.

• Joel Embiid, 2022-23

• Joel Embiid, 2021-22

• Shaquille O’Neal, 1999-2000

• Shaquille O’Neal, 1994-95

• David Robinson, 1993-94

That’s it. In the 46 years of the post-merger NBA, five centers have won the scoring title. Joel Embiid has the last two, and is well on track for a third straight, especially after dropping 70 on the San Antonio Spurs on Monday.

Seventy.

Fellow Substacker

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

won two scoring titles. The great Bob McAdoo won three. Elvin Hayes got one, Bob Pettit nabbed two. Philadelphia legend Neil Johnston claimed three, George Mikan won three and Joe Fulks won the first. Wilt Chamberlain had seven, five of them in Philadelphia. And he never scored 70 as a member of the Sixers organization.

Joel probably isn’t going to win seven scoring titles, but if he keeps this up a couple more seasons, he will be in conversation with Wilt and Kareem as the greatest scoring center of all-time. And that is enough.