Kevin Durant would choose Joel Embiid as NBA's MVP this season, after his 'numbers were incredible'

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Kevin believes that he should be the NBA's Most Valuable Player of the 21st century.

While there were plenty of deserving candidates, he felt that the season of Embiid was a cut above the rest.

The Brooklyn Nets star forward said after Tuesday's game that he would choose the Philadelphia 76ers player. The numbers were amazing. It is a great year.

You can pick any one of the guys out of the top six or seven and have a good year. That shows how great our league is right now and how talented our league is from top to bottom, but I would go with Embiid.

While discussing how narrative plays into the voting for the NBA's Most Valuable Player, Kevin Durant backed up a theory that he had made.

There are a lot of players that have been controlled by their narrative. Some of it has been due to the player, some of it has been due to the perception of other people. There are more people just like Jokic and Giannis. It is as simple as that. They prefer them over his personality or his story.

From a basketball standpoint, the numbers stand up against everyone else, even those of Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, who many believe will win his second straight Most Valuable Player award after the season.

As a basketball player, people look at just the game and what happens on the floor, narratives and who you are and your personality. Thevoters probably like those other guys better than you do. That is not fair, but it is usually how it goes. If I had a vote, I would choose him.

If a player wins a second straight award, they have to do something even more extraordinary than what they did before.

"I feel like if you're going to win back-to-backMVPs, like look at Stephen Curry, who won back-to-backMVPs in 2015 and 2016," he said. I feel that way. I am not saying this is the holy grail. This is how I feel.

If you were to say that they would come back the next year and win 73 games and average 23 points, it would not hit that well. To get two in a row, you need to do something bigger and better than you did before, in my opinion. If you are going to get it. If you are going to do the same thing again, you should go ahead and have another winner. In my opinion, back-to-backMVPs are special and the season that you have to have team-wise, individual-wise, all has to come together in order for you to win them. I feel like Jokic has an incredible season, but he was just as good as the other guy. I think he deserves the most valuable player award.

For his part, he said he played well enough to be considered for the award this season, but he knows that an injured knee cost him 1 1/2 months of the season. There is a lot of what-ifs throughout the season.

I see why I am not in that discussion. That helps their clubs reach heights that they probably reach this year without them, but when it comes to the whole league, there are so many great players playing right now. Maybe it is 10 or 12 of us that can be in that conversation. That is pretty cool to see in our league.

Brooklyn Nets coach Steve Nash, who won back-to-back Most Valuable Player awards in 2005 and 2006 as a member of the Phoenix Suns, agreed with the assessment.

Nash said that Kevin would be his most valuable player.

Nash said that his best season was the one he didn't win the award for.

Nash said that a lot of it is circumstantial. Dirk got the Most Valuable Player in the third year. Every year there is a case for someone else and it is not a linear thing where the best player gets it all the time. How does the season go? How many games did they miss? Who had an exceptional year? What is the narrative? It is one of those things that is not linear.

The biggest key to winning the award is the narrative that each player gets throughout the season, according to KD. It is a sentiment shared by many throughout the league.

I talked to a couple friends last night and I feel like narrative is the main factor in winning the award. When you look at all of these guys' numbers, and their team records, it's pretty incredible -- that three or four guys on that list are averaging 26, 27 a game. Assists and rebound numbers are up. Their team numbers are over.500.

It is difficult to choose an award winner when you have four or five guys like that. It is always going to be a preference about who you want to vote for, individually, what story fits the best for you as a voter. When you break down all the factors, it's way bigger than basketball at this point.

He asked, "But who defines the best player?" What criteria should you use to be a best player? Everyone is different. People are not viewing the game the same way. They consume the game differently. It makes them feel good. Some stories hit them differently than others. Who are these guys picking? Who is making these decisions? That should be the question.

While he wasn't sure what the right solution was right now, he felt like some changes to the voting system were in order.

Something should change because a lot of people don't like the criteria right now. We will see. It is a good conversation to have with basketball fans.