Rich Paul said something the other day that is worth a little bit of reflection for anybody who rolls their eyes at the idea of LeBron James joining the Sixers.
Paul, the NBA superagent who was essentially created by James and who also hosts a podcast alongside former ESPN personality Max Kellerman, claimed that the Knicks would have been James’ clear first choice had they not won an NBA title this season.
“If the Knicks hadn’t have won, this wouldn’t even — there would be no board. He’d be going to the Knicks,” Paul said to Kellerman as he was breaking down James’ potential landing spots.
The comment was both surprising in its bluntness and unsurprising in its conclusion. To anybody who had followed James’ career and psychologically profiled him from afar, it would have made perfect sense if he decided to go where he would be the biggest fish in the biggest pond and also have a chance to write a story that ended up near the top of the local history books.
That probably sounds discouraging to anybody who had been holding out of picking Philadelphia from the list of 10-14 potential destinations Paul broke down for Kellerman. And let’s be clear, that’s probably the correct interpretation. Hey, we all love Philly. But it’s generally not a place for people who dream of places like New York, Los Angeles, and Miami.
Except, there’s another way to interpret Paul’s comments, at least as it pertains to James’ psyche heading into his 24th season in the NBA. While it is impossible to overlook his clear affinity for the bright lights and big city, James also clearly cares deeply about his legacy and his place in the historical record. Neither the Clippers nor the Nets are on his list, after all. His desire for the Knicks would have been as much about the story as the setting. Not only would he have had a chance to become the first player to win four NBA titles with four different teams, he would have won each of them in a place where they meant something.
Such motivation is perfectly reasonable. Inevitable, even. When a competitor spends two decades as the undisputed greatest player in his sport, he needs to find something else to compete against. For many of them, that something is history. James has accomplished more than almost all of the greatest of the greats, and thus needs to keep coming up with new historical challenges to overcome. Leading the Knicks to their first title in 50-plus years would have been the ultimate bucket list item. But Jalen Brunson did it first.
The Sixers aren’t to Philly what the Knicks are to New York. As far as I know, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce didn’t tour Xfinity Mobile Arena as a potential wedding venue. That being said, the Sixers do offer James a chance to do something novel. You can’t say that about many of his potential landing spots.
What could James accomplish in Denver, Golden State or Boston? All have won championships within the last decade led by stars who’ve spent their entire careers with the organizations. Each has a significant edge over Philly if James’ goal is basketball nirvana. Playing alongside Steph Curry or Nikola Jokic or Jayson Tatum would be a hell of a lot of fun, and any of the three could arguably offer James a better chance at winning a title. But none of them offer him a chance to prove something one last time.
In Miami and Cleveland, James has been there and done that. Miami would offer him a unique narrative symmetry along with a chance to play alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo. He went back to Cleveland and won a title with a totally different team from his first stint. Now, he can do the same in Miami. That’s almost as compelling as the prodigal son returning home to close out his career where his heart has always remained. The problem with both situations is the fit.
Look, James would fit pretty much anywhere, even at 42 years old, which he’ll turn Dec. 30. He averaged 20.9 points, 7.2 assists, and 6.1 rebounds last season. His efficiency remains elite. He led his team to a first-round upset of the Rockets before getting swept by the Thunder. The question is whether he would enjoy playing basketball with James Harden in Cleveland.
In Miami, the trio of LeBron, Giannis and Bam Adebayo might be too clunky to get it done given the Heat’s deficiencies in the backcourt and in overall depth. One can argue the Sixers with LeBron have a chance to be a much more enjoyable experience, and potentially much better team than Cleveland and Miami. Going home again comes with the risk of undoing some of the good feelings you carried with your initial departure. Does LeBron really want to risk ending his career in either city with disappointment?
I’ll believe James is seriously considering joining the Sixers as soon as I see him shaking Mike Gansey’s hand in front of the cameras and fielding questions from reporters at the team’s practice facility in Camden. In the event he does not hold an introductory news conference this summer, I will believe he is joining the Sixers the moment I see him at training camp in a Sixers jersey. Even then, I might want to at least poke him with a finger to make sure my eyes do not deceive me.
We’ve done this dance before, haven’t we? Once upon a time Ben Simmons was the Klutch Sports mentee and Joel Embiid was the rising superstar. It was only eight years ago that Josh Harris and Brett Brown climbed aboard the Starchaser Enterprise and flew out to California with the hope that they could sway James to sign with the Sixers. Somehow, they managed to express these hopes with a straight face. The result was little more than a needlessly expanded carbon footprint. The Sixers didn’t even get face time with James himself, and the four-time MVP wound up signing with the Lakers, as everybody had long expected.
At this point, there is little reason to assume that things will play out any differently. The one commonality between all three of James’ free agencies is that they’ve all involved a level of protracted drama that, in hindsight, seemed at least partially contrived. In all three instances, James wound up in a place that looked like the most obvious option, at least in hindsight. The first time he left Cleveland, and went to a place where he could build his own superteam in America’s premier locale for the young, rich and famous. His return to Cleveland both rebuilt and burnished his standing as a hometown legend. The Lakers are the Lakers.
No offense to James, and no offense to Gansey or Bob Myers or Tyrese Maxey or whoever else thinks their personal connection to the King is strong enough to convince him to spend what could be the last season or seasons of his career in a city that offers a tiny fraction of the prestige or narrative value of several of the other potential destinations he is allegedly considering after opting out of his Lakers contract.
I’m not suggesting that anybody on the Sixers side is deluding themselves, and I’m not suggesting that James or Paul is feeding those delusions in bad faith. I’m sure Paul would be thrilled to see James team up with Maxey, another one of his clients at Klutch Sports. I’m sure James loves Maxey, who is impossible not to love, and it’s more than possible that he feels a genuine connection to Gansey, a fellow former Ohio schoolboy star who began climbing up the ranks of the Cavaliers front office around the same time James returned to Cleveland after his four seasons with the Heat. I’m far from sure that any of that will matter in the end.
The Heat and Cavaliers make the most sense from an end-of-career narrative standpoint. The Warriors and Nuggets make the most sense from a pure basketball bliss standpoint. For James to choose the Sixers, he’d need sentiment, basketball bliss, a setting to take a backseat to his desire to put his singular imprint on a new city and a new organization, and to potentially leave both of those entities better off after he is gone than they were before he arrived.
As long as the Sixers can offer him that, you can’t rule him out.
