The Philadelphia 76ers turned a lot of heads on Monday when they announced that they have re-signed Joel Embiid to a very lucrative five year, $148 million max extension. It has drawn mixed reactions from fans, with some saying he does not deserve it for being injury prone and not having enough games under his belt yet.
However, for his teammates, they believe he is worth every penny that he’ll get paid for his promising season last year. They made their thoughts known about it, via Jessica Camerato of NBC Sports, and gave him a lot of credit for working hard to get to this point. Here are the reactions of some of them:
“He’s a beast. As soon as he hits that court, I can’t name one person who’s going to stop him. Honestly, there’s nobody that can compete with him in his position. There’s no one,” Ben Simmons said.
Jahlil Okafor: “He deserves it. I’m really happy for him. It wasn’t a surprise to me. You’ve seen how good of a player he is. He’s an even better person.”
T.J. McConnell: “I don’t think anyone is more deserving after what they’ve been through. To go through two injuries back-to-back years and then come out and do what he did last year, he deserves every single dollar of that …”
“It’s a sense of relief and security. You don’t want a guy like that to go anywhere else. I know the city is really excited. He’s pretty much the go-to guy, the man, and we love having him.”
“For sure he deserves that money. He’s the guy. Everybody knows he will bring us to another level. I cannot wait to see him on the court, to play, to show who we really are. In those 31 games, he showed good talent. He means a lot for our team. I hope he will stay healthy. If he stays healthy, this team is totally different,” said Dario Saric.
After missing two seasons to recover from a pair of knee injuries, the 7-foot Kansas product finally made his debut for the Sixers last year and appeared in 31 games for them. He was able to showcase his impressive skill set and averaged solid numbers of 20.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.5 blocks per game.
With the new contract he’s secured, it may serve as motivation for him to silence all his doubters. Should he remain healthy and produce similar numbers, not only will he be able to help the 76ers make a lot of noise in the Eastern Conference, but also prove his teammates right with all the good words they have to say about him.
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