Washington (United States) (AFP) – LeBron James announced on Friday he will play for the Philadelphia 76ers next season, with the 41-year-old NBA superstar hoping to transform another franchise into a championship team. James, the NBA all-time scoring leader and a four-time NBA Most Valuable Player, has won four titles in a 23-year career, most recently with the Los Angeles Lakers.
But “King James” announced on June 30 that he would depart the Lakers as a free agent, sparking a frenzy of speculation as to his next team. “I believe I can help make the Philadelphia 76ers a championship team and I am so excited to energize a new fan base and start this incredible journey one last time,” James posted on X.
James sparked the Miami Heat to NBA crowns in 2013 and 2014, brought his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers a title in 2016, and delivered a championship for the Lakers in 2020. He’s looking to make the same magic happen in what Rich Paul, James’s agent, tells ESPN will be a two-year deal worth $8 million.
The NBA legend was considering several clubs but will join a 76ers team that traded for forward Jaylen Brown from Boston and boasts a lineup that will also include star center Joel Embiid and guards Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe. “#throwtheballup” Brown posted on X in reaction to the news while Maxey, whose agent is Paul, was screaming with joy on social media over his “recruiting” skills.
James averaged 20.9 points, 7.2 assists, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.2 steals a game for the Lakers last season and said he was considering retirement strongly when the campaign concluded. “I thought I was done when the season ended. I wasn’t ready to announce it, and I knew I needed some time to really decide, but I was pretty sure I played my last game,” James posted on X. “I was honest at that last press conference when I said I needed to look at myself and decide if I still love this game.”
Paul played up the potential clubs James could join during more than three weeks of mystery about where he might sign. Would James return home to Cleveland, return to Miami, possibly join pals Stephen Curry and Draymond Green at Golden State? Would he find another contender to boost?
“This is my last decision,” James, who had made three prior heavily scrutinized free agent moves in his career, posted. “I’m not going for money. I’m not going for family. What am I really playing for at this point? I still want to sacrifice. I still want to work. I still want to grind. I still want to compete, to win and to have a chance at the feeling of winning another championship.”
James did send his regrets to some of his other suitors, posting: “Thank you LA. Miami I’ll forever love and Northeast Ohio will always be home!” The indecision had become a strain for the business side of the NBA, commissioner Adam Silver saying he could not commit to a schedule for the upcoming season until he knew where James landed, with telecasters hoping to fill their lineups with LeBron and his new teammates.
James had excited 76ers fans a week ago when he used the phrase “trusting the process” to describe his training habits, a phrase the Sixers used during a 2013-2016 rebuild but which James dismissed as something he had said since his 2003 NBA arrival.
– No title since 1983 – The 76ers have reached the playoffs in eight of the past nine years but never advanced beyond the second round, where they were swept out this past season by eventual champion New York. The 76ers last reached the NBA Finals in 2001, losing to the Lakers, and last won the title in 1983 — when Julius Erving sparked a Finals sweep of the Lakers.
Sixers coach Nick Nurse, who celebrated his 59th birthday on Friday, guided the Toronto Raptors to the 2019 NBA title. James and Embiid were teammates on the US squad that captured gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
© 2024 AFP
