Philadelphia 76ers president Daryl Morey takes questions from the media at a press conference at the NBA basketball team’s facility, June 1, 2023, in Camden, N.J. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers extended team president Daryl Morey’s contract through the 2027-28 season.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
“I’m very excited to be here in Philadelphia for the foreseeable future and even a little bit longer,” Morey said. “We have goals that ownership wants to accomplish, I want to accomplish, Joel Embiid, (Tyreese) Maxey, Tobias (Harris), everyone wants to accomplish.”
Morey’s .653 winning percentage through his first three seasons represents the best mark in franchise history. Last season, the 76ers compiled a 54-28 regular-season record, the team’s best mark since 2000-01. However, they have not made it past the second round of the playoffs since that same season. They have a 17-7 record this season after a win over the Detroit Pistons on Friday.
“Daryl is one of the best front office executives in sports and I greatly value his leadership,” Josh Harris, 76ers managing partner, said in a statement issued by the team. “I’m thrilled to have reached an agreement to extend his contract and look forward to working together to maximize our chances of competing for an NBA title.”
Morey has presided over two tumultuous trades, one that sent Ben Simmons to New Jersey in a blockbuster trade that brought James Harden to Philadelphia in 2022. But Morey and Harden had a falling out and Morey traded Harden to the Los Angeles Clippers at the beginning of the season.
“Obviously there’s been some trials and tribulations, but, you know, we’re excited where we are at,” Morey said. “The best franchises are the ones that win and they have both stability and alignment … and I feel like we have that alignment. It allows you to do things like build out your roster, knowing how it’s going to look going forward.”
Morey’s extension now has him aligned as far as contractual terms with his hand-picked coach, Nick Nurse. Morey added that the plan is to keep everyone in place, including Embiid, Maxey and even Elton Brand, the team’s general manager.
“This is a group we’d like to keep together,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll have something to announce along those lines not too long from now.”
Morey feels that Embiid is once again playing at an MVP level and that the 76ers are in a prime position to make a run at an NBA championship this season, something they haven’t done since 1983.
To that end, Morey said he expects the 76ers to be actively seeking to improve the team at the trade deadline, if not sooner.
“We think this year is extremely key,” Morey said. “Obviously we can’t force any sort of trade that might help the team, but if all else is equal we would like to do something earlier. We don’t get many chances to have a player like Joel playing at an MVP-plus level, to have a young, up-and-coming player like Tyrese, who continues to improve day-by-day, and then a whole bunch of really solid guys that Nick has playing at a very high level.
“All of these things are a really good indicator that we have put ourselves in a spot where we can really win it this year. This year can’t be taken for granted.”