Breaking down rumors about LeBron James joining the Sixers
It is every professional sports team’s dream to bring in a generational player like LeBron James. With six NBA Finals appearances, 13 consecutive NBA All-Star nominations and inexplicable genetics and athleticism, LeBron brings much more than talent to a team. He brings success, championships and a winning culture.
After departing his home team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, James had one of the most publicized interviews in sports history, in which he sat down with Jim Gray of ESPN, in a televised special titled “The Decision.”
He dramatized his choice to move to South Beach to join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh as the Miami Heat looked to build a dynasty. After spending four years in Miami, making it to four NBA Finals and winning two of them, James announced that he was ready to go back to Cleveland.
Next season, James will once again become a free agent. Some of the top analysts and NBA insiders have made speculations that James will be looking to opt-out with the Cavaliers.
A favorable potential landing spot for James might include the Los Angeles Lakers. James has stated that he will not be accepting anything less than a max-contract buyout. That being said, the Lakers have almost unlimited cap room to sign not only James, but another big name talent like Paul George.
Along with that, the Lakers have young talent in the form of Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram. For these reasons, Los Angeles. is more alluring for a big star than Cleveland.
Other possibilities include teams that are already stacked with talent, and ready to win now. The Houston Rockets and even the Golden State Warriors have expressed interest in the 6’8” forward who can play and defend any position on the court. There isn’t a team in the league that doesn’t have interest in James.
One of the more interesting options for James would be to join the electric young core of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons as part of the Philadelphia 76ers. The connection makes sense, and regardless of how pessimistic the majority of Philly fans are in situations like this, the logistics of this move would work out perfectly.
The Sixers are among the most affluent teams in the league in terms of cap space, as their locker room consists almost entirely of young, developing talent.
James would get the opportunity to work with some of the NBA’s most promising young athletes. Rookie of the Year candidate Ben Simmons also shares the same agent as James, which is interesting when one considers that many have compared Simmons’ size and mobility to that of the King.
This past week, there were reports that James’ representation visited Malvern Preparatory School, an all-boys high school located in Chester County, which happens to be my alma mater. Sources claimed LeBron was looking at Malvern for his son Bronny to attend. This rumor somehow made national media, and appeared on ESPN’s “The Herd,” starring Colin Cowherd.
Unfortunately for Philly fans, and Malvern grads like myself, that’s all that these claims were: rumors.
Head basketball coach and my former “Technology in Society” teacher, John Harmatuk, dismissed all of the hype in the Malvern school paper, The Friar’s Lantern. “As of right now,” Harmatuk said, “there’s been no contact with the LeBron camp with me personally.”
Surely, I would love to see James in a Sixers uniform. I believe he’s the best athlete to ever live, and beyond that, he has an impeccably clean record and is a key figure in social justice movements such as Black Lives Matter. James is the ideal mold of how a professional athlete should be on and off the court. It also doesn’t hurt that he became the first player to ever average a triple-double this past February.
Nobody knows where exactly LeBron will end up next year, but it is always interesting to imagine him in different schemes around the league. If we’re lucky, he could feed off of the championship energy in Philadelphia, and hopefully bring us a title for our historic basketball franchise.
