1 hour ago
3
LeBron James had a lot to weigh.
After deciding to return for his unprecedented 24th NBA season, he needed to choose where he would play.
He mulled over his options for 24 days.
Or 576 hours.
Or 34,560 minutes.
Various factors tugged at his heartstrings for what would be the swan song for one of the greatest athletes of all time.
There was the family factor.
His wife, Savannah, 11-year-old daughter, Zhuri, and son, Bronny, are in Los Angeles.
There was the happiness factor. Golf had become his new passion.
There was the legacy factor. Returning to Cleveland, where he was selected as the No. 1 overall pick in 2003, would be the perfect storybook ending.
Ultimately, James didn’t prioritize any of those things.
The player who devoted his life to greatness, showing up to arenas five hours before games and three hours before practices and missing countless family celebrations, decided to chase what has motivated him for two decades.
Winning a championship.
James stunned the basketball world Friday morning by agreeing to sign a two-year, $8 million deal with the 76ers.
He doesn’t have history in Philadelphia, as he does with Cleveland and Miami, where he won three of his four championships. He doesn’t have deep ties to the players on the roster, as he does with Draymond Green and Steph Curry in Golden State.
But he believes the 76ers give him something that has been his life force since he entered the NBA as an 18-year-old with the most pressure on his shoulders of any prospect ever.
A chance to be on the mountaintop again.
So, James will pursue his fifth ring with a new team in a sports-obsessed city. This is a gamble. This is win or bust. He’s putting it all on the line.
James could’ve released the pressure valve by picking Cleveland or Miami, where he has nothing left to prove.
He could’ve prioritized fun by choosing Golden State, where an old men-versus-the-league narrative would’ve captivated fans regardless of wins or losses.
Instead, James turned up the pressure to the highest level for his final act.
He entered the league under those conditions. There’s something poetic about him exiting under them, too.
“This is my last decision,” James wrote on X on Friday. “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.
“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 is joining a roster headlined by Joel Embiid, Jaylen Brown and Tyrese Maxey. The 76ers needed a power forward. They got the best free agent on the market in James, a 41-year-old who’s arguably still a top-10 player even though he’s the oldest guy in the league.
The basketball fit is beautiful. James is one of the best playmakers we’ve ever seen. He’ll free up Maxey and Brown to score. If Embiid stays healthy, this team could challenge the reigning champion Knicks.
James won a gold medal alongside Embiid at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
He questioned why Brown wasn’t getting more consideration for the MVP Award last season, even though Brown was caught on camera at a 2024 Las Vegas Summer League game saying, “I don’t think Bronny is a pro.” He has publicly touted Maxey, who’s also represented by Klutch Sports Group.
Now they’re joining forces to deliver a championship to Philadelphia, which hasn’t won a title since 1983 when the franchise was led by Julius Erving and Moses Malone.
You can’t help but think James’ decision was influenced by the Knicks’ title run. He watched Jalen Brunson lead a famished fan base to their first championship in 53 years. He saw the joy. The passion. The emotions.
He wanted to recreate that for himself.
Ultimately, he decided it’s all for naught if winning isn’t the end goal. So, he’s going somewhere cold where he can’t play golf year-round. Somewhere far from his family. Somewhere he has no history.
James genuinely contemplated retirement after an eight-season stint with the Lakers.
But the guy who has been the NBA’s sun for two decades still deeply felt the gravitational pull that has been his oxygen for over 20 years.
So he decided to return for a final act.
He won a championship in Miami in his second season with the team. When he returned to Cleveland, it took him two seasons to lead the franchise to its only title. And after going to the Lakers, he led them to a title in his second season.
He’s giving himself the same timeline in Philadelphia.
After rumors swirled for three weeks about his priorities, in retrospect it makes sense that only one mattered.
And he’s putting everything on the line to achieve it.
He wants to hear the crowd roar. He wants to see a deluge of confetti fall from the ceiling. He wants to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy once again.
The greatest is going for greatness.
English (US)