Joel Embiid’s new five-year, maximum salary contract extension contains a specific clause designed to protect the 76ers in case of significant injury, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The Sixers could waive Embiid at any time should he suffer a specific injury to his feet or back, two past issues with the 7-footer, so long as it keeps him out for 25-plus games and he plays fewer than 1,650 minutes. Should that happen, the team would bring back some of the money due for Embiid.
Here’s how a perfect storm of calamity would have to unfold for Embiid to earn any less than the full $146.5 million: Across each of the final four seasons of the extension, ending with the 2022-23 season, the 76ers could waive Embiid for a financial benefit if he’s lost because of a contractually agreed-upon injury that causes him to miss 25 or more regular-season games and if he plays fewer than 1,650 minutes, league sources said.
Specific injuries are laid out in the contract and include only past problem areas with Embiid’s feet and back, sources said. Embiid has to miss 25 or more regular-season games because of injuries to those areas, and play fewer than 1,650 minutes, for Philadelphia to have the option of releasing him for cost savings.
For example, if Embiid hypothetically suffered a serious knee or wrist injury — something outside the contractual language surrounding the feet and back — the 76ers would have no avenue to waive Embiid to reclaim any portion of his salary. And given Embiid’s rare talent, there’s a belief that he’d have to suffer a career-ending injury to inspire the 76ers to release him.
If Embiid met that narrow criteria and the Sixers decided to waive him after the 2018-19 season, he would receive $84.2 million of his full contract; after the 2019-20 season, $98.2 million; after the 2020-21 season, $113.3 million; and after the 2021-22 season, $129.4 million.
What’s more, if Embiid played a minimum of 1,650 regular-season minutes in three consecutive years during the extension, or three out of four including the 2017-18 season, those benchmarks would eliminate the possibility of a reduction in the contract, league sources said.
Embiid’s injury history is certainly something to worry about — he’s only played 31 career games — but most believe the 76ers made the right decision by extending him. A player with his kind of talent and size is hard to come by.
Embiid dominated in his 31 games last season, averaging 20.2 points and 7.8 rebounds in just 25.4 minutes per game.
