rewrite this title 76ers finally close the door on Joel Embiid’s return

Embiid has missed two-thirds of the 2024-25 season, and when he has played, the 2023 NBA MVP has looked like a shell of himself. His scoring dropped from 34.7 points to 23.8, rebounds from 11 to 8.2 per game, his shooting from 52.9 percent to 44.4 percent and his three-point percentage from 38.8 percent to 29.9 percent.

It’s no surprise that without Embiid the team has struggled, but the Sixers’ record of 20-38 is worse than anyone would have imagined. Last season, Embiid underwent surgery on his left knee last Feb. 6, which kept him out until April. He played in Philadelphia’s first-round loss to the New York Knicks, and again for Team USA at the Olympics, wearing a brace on his left knee.

He was still experiencing inflammation and swelling in the knee well into this season, telling ESPN’s Lisa Salter that he’d likely need another surgery. The Sixers shut him down Feb. 22, and now they’re accepting that he’s out for the season — and until his knee finally gets better.

But Embiid’s knee issues affect more than just the 2024-25 season. Philadelphia gave a four-year, $155M contract to Paul George, who turns 35 in May, to be the missing piece to get Philly to the Finals. They gave multiyear deals to veterans Eric Gordon, Andre Drummond and Kelly Oubre Jr.

Their biggest summer financial commitment was to Embiid himself. Even while Embiid was rehabbing his knee, the Sixers signed him to a three-year contract extension worth $193M. That doesn’t kick in until the 2026-27 season, after Embiid earns $106.6M this season and next.

Philadelphia is looking at paying Embiid a whopping $67.3M during a season when he’ll turn 35. That’s for a player who averaged 20 missed games per season from age 23-28, but sat out over half of the Sixers’ games last season and will miss three-quarters of them this year.

With the season effectively lost, the 76ers had little choice but to shut Embiid down, and they probably should have pulled the plug earlier. But going forward, the team has nearly a quarter of a billion dollars invested in an injury-prone big man and no guarantee he’ll ever be the same player again.

The Sixers are sacrificing their ambitions for this season to preserve their dwindling future hopes. Embiid could show real progress in his seven months off. But the Sixers’ future remains very cloudy if and until he does.