One of the winners of the offseason has locked up their MVP-level big man. Joel Embiid has signed a contract extension with the organization that drafted him over a decade ago and has seen him through many peaks and valleys, the Philadelphia 76ers, the team announced Friday. It is a three-year max deal worth $192.9 million, as reported by ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and confirmed by CBS Sports’ Bill Reiter.
Embiid himself took to social media and announced the deal in a post.
“Philadelphia is home,” he wrote. “I want to be here for the rest of my career.”
He went on to say: “I love this community and everything you’ve given me and my family. There is a lot more work to do. You guys deserve a championship and I think we’re just getting started!”
Embiid and 76ers owner Josh Harris are both quoted in the team’s official press release:
“Joel has cemented himself as one of the greatest Sixers of all time and is well on his way to being one of the best players to ever play the game. We’re ecstatic that this extension keeps him and his family in Philadelphia for years to come,” Managing Partner Josh Harris said. “Joel is a great family man, leader, and person. He is an elite two-way player with a combination of size, strength, and athleticism that this league has rarely – if ever – seen. He is integral to this franchise’s quest for another NBA Championship, and we are honored that he continues to choose this organization as his NBA home.”
“I started a Sixer and want to be right here for the rest of my career. I had no idea when I was drafted as a 20-year-old kid from Cameroon how lucky I was to be in Philadelphia,” Embiid said. ”Through all the ups and downs, this city and the fans have been everything, and I am so grateful for how they’ve embraced me. I want to thank Josh, David [Blitzer], and the entire organization. Philadelphia is home and it’s time to bring this community an NBA championship.”
Embed from Getty ImagesThe extension runs through the 2028-29 campaign, when Embiid will be 35 years old. There is a player option on the final season, however, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. As a condition of the deal, Embiid said thanks but no thanks and turned down a player option worth $59 million in 2026-27. He will now earn $59.3 million in 2026-27 and $64.3 million in 2027-28, with a player option worth approximately $69.1 million in 2028-29, according to ESPN’s NBA front office insider Bobby Marks, who also noted that this contract will bring his career earnings above $500 million, putting him in an exclusive club that also includes some of the game’s all-time greats, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Paul George and Stephen Curry.
Embiid will make an estimated $299.5 million in the next five years, assuming he picks up that player option.
Last season when healthy, Embiid was an absolute monster, averaging career highs of 34.7 points and 5.6 assists, plus 11.0 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 1.2 steals per game. The 2023 Most Valuable Player had an even higher usage rate (38.7%) than he did in that MVP season, with only a slight drop off in efficiency, and he made significant strides as a passer in his first season under coach Nick Nurse. This summer, he won a prestigious gold medal with Team USA at the Olympics in Paris, most notably making several key crunch-time plays against Serbia in an instant-classic semifinals comeback.
Embiid, 30, has been with the Sixers since their front office, at the time led by Sam Hinkie, who is famous for ‘The Process’, drafted him No. 3 overall in 2014. He did not take the floor a single game in his first two years as a pro after multiple surgeries on his injured right foot, but has since gone on to have a Hall of Fame-worthy career, making seven All-Star Games, five All-NBA teams and three All-Defensive Teams.
Now that Philadelphia has secured its franchise player, each member of its new Big 3 is signed long-term. Paul George, the biggest name to change teams in free agency this offseason, signed a four-year max deal that allows him to hit free agency in 2027 at the earliest, should he choose to decline his player option rather than making $56.6 million in what will be the 18th season of his career. Tyrese Maxey, the Sixers’ 23-year-old emerging superstar, who can take over games at the drop of a hat, signed a five-year max deal that allows him to hit free agency no sooner than 2029. The Sixers have committed a boatload of money and resources, approximately $715 million in future salary to this trio, according to ESPN.
Since 2017-18, only three teams, the Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets have won more regular-season games than Philadelphia. During that stretch, however, the 76ers have never enjoyed the playoff success, failing to advance past the Eastern Conference semifinals, and Embiid has been hampered by the injury bug had to play through pain in nearly every postseason.
Going forward on this new deal, Embiid is once again the anchor of a retooled roster that is considered to be a championship contender, and this team could give him his best shot yet. George is the most talented wing Embiid has played with since his short stint with Jimmy Butler, and, because of his 3-point shooting ability, is likely a better fit. Maxey’s climb to the top of the ladder is unreal. And in addition to the aforementioned big-money deals, Daryl Morey’s front office went right to work adding important role player in Caleb Martin, Andre Drummond, Eric Gordon, Reggie Jackson and Guerschon Yabusele and brought back veterans Kelly Oubre Jr. and Kyle Lowry, all on team-friendly contracts, and re-signed K.J. Martin to a contract designed to be flipped in a win-now trade at the deadline.
In the ‘City of Brotherly Love’, Embiid has outlasted a plethora of executives and coaches, seen several scandals and had a few co-stars come and go, but The Process (as in Embiid himself, since he adopted the term as his nickname) is not going anywhere.
