Sixers' Joel Embiid Shares Main Goal for 2020-2021 NBA Season

Joel Embiid wants to be the best. Over his first few years in the league, the Philadelphia 76ers big man has slightly obsessed over personal accolades. When he first came into the league, Embiid wanted to be an All-Star.

In 2018 he got there, and now he's a regular. Before last season, Embiid was named All-NBA Second-Team twice and NBA All-Defensive Second Team twice. Last year, Embiid didn't earn any personal nods outside of making the All-Star team, which expectedly bothered the big man a bit.

"For me, as you know, it was kinda ridiculous I didn’t make any All-NBA teams," Embiid told Sixers.com's Brian Seltzer last month. "That sucks. It was kind of like a punch in the gut. It was very disappointing." While Embiid still had an All-Star season, the Sixers' big man knew he could've done better.

But this year, he's heading into the 2020-2021 NBA season with higher team-wide expectations. Sure, Embiid wants to collect his personal awards at the end of the season, but the 76ers center understands that winning is better than player awards, and with winning, the solo accomplishments will follow.

"My main thing is winning," Embiid said after practice on Thursday. "Like I said in the past, when you win, everybody wins. A player of my time should always be in MVP, or Defensive Player of the Year conversations, or All-NBA -- it should be like that every single year. To be able to accomplish that, you gotta win. That's the main thing, winning cures everything and makes everybody happy."

Last season, Embiid and the Sixers didn't win as much as they have in the previous two years. And when they appeared in the playoffs for a third-straight season, they failed to pick up a single postseason win and failed to get out of the first round. For a team with championship aspirations, Philly was wildly disappointing.

This year, Embiid is looking forward to climbing back into the contender conversation within the Eastern Conference. Over the last few years, the 76ers had a lot of offseason hype surrounding them. This year, though, the expectations are low from a national standpoint. With eyes off of the 76ers this year, Embiid and his team have an excellent opportunity to shock the doubters in 2020-2021.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_