This summer, the Philadelphia 76ers had an opportunity to add a superstar to their already star-studded team to make themselves the best team in the Eastern Conference.

The Sixers could have signed either LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, or Paul George this summer, and any one of these players would have improved their chances of winning the NBA Championship next season.

However, they missed out on all three of them. James ended up signing with the Los Angeles Lakers, Kawhi was traded to the Toronto Raptors, and George decided to stay put at the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Ultimately though, Joel Embiid doesn't mind that the Sixers missed out on signing a huge superstar this offseason because he wants to be better than all of them.

The Sixers star said during a conference call Wednesday from Johannesburg, South Africa, via Sarah Todd of The Inquirer: “When my season ended, there was a lot of talk about adding guys. I literally did not really care because I want to get better.

"I want to be better than those guys that were mentioned, if I’m not already better than them.”

The Sixers managed to achieve 52 wins last season, and either LeBron, Kawhi, or George would have helped improve those totals in 2018-19. 

Embiid has shown he has the ability to be a top player in the NBA like the three names mentioned above, and that's a target he has for next season.

The center said he wants to win the MVP, and that he's helping to make this a reality by improving his 3-point shot and ball-handling skills this summer.

Embiid said: “I want to win the MVP. I feel like at the end of the day it might be an individual award, but when I play better, the team also does. I feel like if I’m an MVP candidate or if I win the MVP, that means we are on another level."

He continued: “We won 52 games, which nobody thought would happen, we won 16 games in a row, we thought that we had a chance to go to the Finals. The approach doesn’t change. Still the same. We’re just going to do our thing.”

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