Joel Embiid, 76ers finalize three-year max extension

The deal is official, per an announcement from the team.

“Philadelphia is home,” Embiid wrote in an Instagram post announcing the agreement. “I want to be here for the rest of my career. 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!”

Team owner Josh Harris expressed his thoughts in a statement of his own.

“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,” Harris said in the statement. “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.”

Based on current salary cap projections, Embiid’s three-year extension will be worth approximately $192.9M. He’ll make a projected $59.5M in 2026-27 and $64.3M in 2027-28, with a $69.1M player option for 2028-29. Those figures count on the cap increasing by the maximum allowable 10% in each of the next two seasons.

Taking into account the two years and $106.6M left on Embiid’s current contract, he’s now on track to earn just shy of $300M over the next five seasons. The big man’s previous deal included a player option for the 2026-27 season, but it’ll be replaced by the new contract.

After being plagued by foot issues that cost him two full seasons at the start of his NBA career, Embiid has become one of the league’s most dominant players, earning All-Star nods in each of the past seven years and All-NBA spots in five of those seasons.

The former No. 3 overall pick holds career averages of 27.9 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.7 blocks in 31.9 minutes per game across 433 outings (all starts) and finished in the top two of three consecutive MVP votes from 2021-23, winning the award in 2023.

Embiid appeared headed for another MVP-caliber season in 2023-24 before a knee injury sidelined him for most of the second half and limited him to 39 games. The 30-year-old averaged a career-high 34.7 points per game with an elite .529/.388/.883 shooting line when healthy, then won an Olympic gold medal in Paris with Team USA this summer.

Embiid’s new deal makes him the fifth member of the NBA’s $500M+ club, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN, who notes (via Twitter) that the Sixers star trails only LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and teammate Paul George in career earnings, based on their past and current contracts. Kevin Durant is the fifth player whose career salaries will exceed $500M by the end of his current deal.

Embiid’s extension caps a huge offseason of spending for the 76ers, who also signed Tyrese Maxey to a five-year, $203.8M contract and George to a four-year, $211.6M deal in free agency. In total, Philadelphia’s three stars are owed approximately $715M.