Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid has been named the Hickok Belt® Award winner for the month of December 2023. Voting was conducted by a select panel of members of the National Sports Media Association (NSMA). The voters selected Embiid for his extraordinary performance, breaking a number of records in December. He showed his magic in nine consecutive games with 30-points and 10-rebounds, surpassing Wilt Chamberlain for the 76ers’ record. Three games later, he extended his streak to twelve games, the most since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar recorded a 16 game 30-points, 10 rebounds streak. He was the first NBA player to average 40 or more points with 60% field goal shooting in a month. The 29-year-old continues to perform at a high level for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Other finalists for December in order of how the NSMA ranked them included: Michaela Shiffrin (skiing), Luka Doncic (basketball), Christian McCaffrey (football), Nathan MacKinnon (hockey), Brock Purdy (football), Conner Hellebuyck (hockey), Marco Odermatt (skiing), Puka Nacua (football), and Arslanbek Makhmudov (boxing).
Embiid’s selection as the Hickok Belt® winner for December recognizes him as “the best of the best” in professional sports for the month. It also makes him the final candidate eligible to receive the 2023 award, joining Dak Prescott, Simone Biles, Adolis Garcia, Coco Gauf, Carlos Alcaraz, Nikola Jovic, Jon Rahm, Mikaela Shiffrin, and Damien Lillard.
To learn more about the Hickok Belt® Award and its history, visit http://www.hickokbelt.com.
Provided information and photo
