A three-week pursuit of one of the greatest basketball players all-time has paid off for the Philadelphia 76ers.
LeBron James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, announced Friday morning that he will play for the 76ers next season, saying he believes he can make them a championship team. He and that it comes after he considered retirement.
“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 said.
LeBron James’ agent Rich Paul told ESPN on Friday that James is signing a two-year deal with the 76ers worth $8 million.
The 41-year-old James is arguably the best to ever do it, looking for a coda to his stellar career. The 22-time All-Star won NBA titles with Miami in 2012 and 2013, with Cleveland in 2016 and with the Lakers in 2020. He was the finals MVP all four times. The four-time MVP and 13-time All-NBA first-teamer is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, setting records that are likely to never be surpassed.
He’s played 302 career playoff games, averaging 28.2 points, 8.9 rebounds and 7.2 assists in more than 41.2 minutes per game.
James played 60 games last year, averaging 33.2 minutes per game. He averaged 20.9 points per game, his lowest total since his rookies season in Cleveland, to go with 6.1 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 1.2 steals per game. It was the first time since that rookie season that he wasn’t named on one of the three All-NBA teams.
James had no shortage of potential suitors, befitting the King’s status. He could’ve returned to either Cleveland to pursue another ring alongside James Harden and Donovan Mitchell, or he could’ve teamed with Giannis Antetokounmpo in an otherwise thin Miami Heat roster. Minnesota was interested in pairing him with Anthony Edwards, as was Denver to pair him with Nikola Jokic in chasing another championship.
The most logical landing point seemed to be Golden State. Steve Kerr coached James with the U.S. Olympic team. Steph Curry is 38 and chasing a fifth ring, in what would be a union of two of the game’s all-time greats, with the possibility that Draymond Green could also resign.
The Sixers became a viable destination when they traded Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round selections to Boston for Jaylen Brown. The core of Brown, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe plus the occasionally healthy contributions of Joel Embiid provide a structure that can chase a title. Embiid was James’ teammate at the 2024 Olympics, in which the U.S. won gold. Maxey and James have grown close, including as All-Stars together last year.
The Sixers have rotation-filling depth pieces in Dean Wade, Dominick Barlow and Anfernee Simons, plus a first-round pick in Labaron Philon who figures to provide availability and dynamism.
There are questions of how all the pieces would fit together. Maxey, James, Brown and Embiid are all players who are best with the ball in their hands. But James has tailored his game to others around him before, and at 41 will likely do so again if another NBA title is the goal. He led the NBA in assists in 2019-20 and shot 41 percent from 3-point range as recently as 2023-24. (His shooting number are volatile: 32.1 in 2022-23, then 41.0, then 37.6 and just 31.7 last year.)
Brown showed his adaptability last year, becoming a necessary high-volume scorer with Jayson Tatum out recovering from his Achilles’ tear. It never really meshed together again late in the season, the Celtics exiting in the first round of the playoffs at the hands of the 76ers. But the 2024 finals MVP is a proven clutch performer.
As for the returning 76ers, Edgecombe has played almost exclusively off the ball in a sensational rookie campaign and was arguably better without the ball in his hands. The 76ers were looking for ways for Maxey to be less ball-dominant. He led the league in minutes per game at 38.0, with Edgecombe 11th. (Maxey was eighth in total minutes, with Edgecombe 11th). Anything that gets them off the court with reliable cover is a positive.
For what it was worth to James, the 76ers had only the $3.9 million veterans minimum exception to offer within their salary cap. Thatap the same offer on the table from Denver, Golden State and Minnesota. The Cavs could’ve upped their offer to the $6.1 million mid-level exception, while the Heat could’ve done that or a little more, all without another roster subtraction. Given that James had made something in the neighborhood of $580,000,000 just in salary, itap debatable how much sway the difference in those numbers held.
