Scenario: You’re a 23-year-old professional basketball player. Actually, strike that. You’re a 23-year-old anything. And someone gives you a five-year, $140-plus million extension.
Are you buying anything after putting pen to paper?
Probably. Most definitely.
Unless you’re Joel Embiid.
ESPN.com’s Jackie MacMullan penned an interesting profile on the Philadelphia 76ers’ big man, within which she was able to ask the question drilling a hole inside all our brains: What did Embiid buy after snagging his deal?
When asked what he bought for himself after inking the extension, Embiid answered, “Nothing.”
Oh.
Why not, you ask? Because Embiid appreciates the simpler things:
ust before the extension, he purchased a new home for his parents in Cameroon because the old one was filled with painful memories of his brother Arthur, who was struck and killed by a car three years ago. Embiid wasn’t tempted to indulge for himself, either with jewelry, a house or a new car.
“I don’t drive,” he says. “All I really need is my video games and a big-ass TV.”
Major ups to Embiid for the most awesome contract-purchase answer ever. Not that we should have expected anything less.
Embiid’s extension doesn’t kick in until next season, and a bunch of non-guarantees are built into it. This could explain his relative simplicity. Perhaps he spends like whoa if and when his $25-plus million salary for next year hits the full-guarantee point.
Or, more likely, maybe Embiid is exactly who we think he is—an open book. And given his history of apparent transparency, we shouldn’t expect him to fib about this. What’s the motivation?
Really, we should believe this response no matter what, if only because it’s awesome and we should want it to be true.
