Why did you sign Joel Embiid to the extension when he had years left on his contract? Daryl Morey: Yeah, I just think—if we’re winning the title, Joel Embiid’s on the team. I think it’s important how these top-top players—and Joel’s going to be one of the top players all time, regardless of how things get written from here—everyone knows how good he was in his MVP year and multiple years around that. When you go out and get a top free agent like we did with Paul [George]—obviously, people are questioning that—but we thought that was absolutely the best way to maximize the window with Joel. It’s pretty hard to do those kinds of moves and not have those players on similar timelines. If you have a Paul George on a longer timeline and Joel Embiid on a shorter timeline, that doesn’t work great. It was just a two-year extension. People talk about it being three—it was two years. -via YouTube / May 12, 2025