What happens if LeBron James joins new-look 76ers? ‘We’re going to be even better’

{“@context”:”https://schema.org”,”@type”:”VideoObject”,”@id”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/video/ZFcndQr3xfsxJX3/”,”url”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/video/ZFcndQr3xfsxJX3/”,”name”:”LeBron James to Philadelphia? Saquon Barkley makes his pitch”,”description”:”At Saquon Barkley’s youth football camp this week, the Philadelphia Eagles’ star running back makes his pitch to LeBron James in free agency. Barkley would know — he signed as a free agent with the Eagles in 2024 and won a Super Bowl”,”uploadDate”:”2026-07-10T20:35:30.973Z”,”duration”:”PT18S”,”thumbnailUrl”:”https://cdn-media.theathletic.com/video-stream/auto-thumbnail/ZFcndQr3xfsxJX3/fp8n6grPbqFM.0000000.jpg”,”contentUrl”:”https://video.nyt.com/athletic/streams/ZFcndQr3xfsxJX3/fp8n6grPbqFM/fp8n6grPbqFM.m3u8″,”transcript”:”Um, that’s a great question. Uh, I mean, I, I think it’s one of the greatest sports towns in the world. Uh, I know Josh Hart said the opposite. I saw that today on Twitter, but I have to disagree with him. But, um, yeah, I mean, if he wanna go out with a bang, because a great spot would be in Philly and winning a championship in Philadelphia. You’ve been I remember that.”,”ineligibleRegion”:[“BI”,”BY”,”CD”,”CF”,”CU”,”IQ”,”IR”,”KP”,”LB”,”LY”,”ML”,”NI”,”RU”,”SD”,”SO”,”SS”,”SY”,”UA”,”VE”,”YE”,”ZW”],”publisher”:{“@type”:”NewsMediaOrganization”,”@id”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/#publisher”,”name”:”The Athletic”,”url”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/”,”foundingDate”:”2016-01-25″,”logo”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”@id”:”https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”url”:”https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”contentUrl”:”https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”creditText”:”The Athletic”,”height”:”60″,”width”:”435″},”publishingPrinciples”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/edit-guidelines/”,”sameAs”:”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Athletic”},”author”:[{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Zach Berman”}]}

{“@context”:”https://schema.org”,”@type”:”VideoObject”,”@id”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/video/oB9rKwvq7sb177C/”,”url”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/video/oB9rKwvq7sb177C/”,”name”:”The team that makes the most sense for LeBron James”,”description”:”Esfandiar Baraheni determines the one team LeBron James should sign with.”,”uploadDate”:”2026-07-08T18:04:23.515Z”,”duration”:”PT2M48S”,”thumbnailUrl”:”https://cdn-media.theathletic.com/video-stream/auto-thumbnail/oB9rKwvq7sb177C/HjPHZtVKTafI.0000000.jpg”,”contentUrl”:”https://video.nyt.com/athletic/streams/oB9rKwvq7sb177C/HjPHZtVKTafI/HjPHZtVKTafI.m3u8″,”transcript”:”LeBron James has played his last game as a Laker, but do you know the one team that would make the perfect ending to his story? There’s already been so much star movement in the NBA offseason, and the final domino to fall this summer will be 41 year old LeBron James. And the King has his options. According to Rich Paul’s whiteboard, many teams are under consideration, with a few of them being more likely than others. While you can make a case for LeBron to join any one of them, they’re actually. Two different ways to look at this. There’s what makes sense as a story for the final chapter of his all-time career, and then there’s what gives him the best chance of winning a championship and ending on a high note. And there’s one team that hits both. Let’s go by process of elimination. Playing alongside Steph Curry and finishing their careers together as two players who defined a generation of basketball would be incredible. But how close would the oldest team in the NBA really be to winning it? Can you bank on Curry, James, Draymond Green, and potentially Anthony Davis to play 100+ games in the fast-paced modern NBA? I doubt it. If you squint, you can see the reason a Miami Heat reunion would make sense. The new-look Heat with Giannis Anntokopo and Bam Adebayo need ball handling and shooting, and LeBron at this stage in his career is excellent in both areas, even from a narrative standpoint. It would be cool to see LeBron chase his last. Last title in the place he won his first one, but admittedly, it falls short of being storybook. On the other side of the spectrum, the Nuggets, Timberwolves, and Sixers all have little historical connection to LeBron, but they make compelling cases from a basketball perspective. LeBron would add much-needed size, ball handling, and shooting to the Nuggets’ front court. In Minnesota, the Wolves desperately need a starting power forward, and Braun would fit in snugly. The. Same goes for Philadelphia, but it’s hard to see LeBron finishing his final chapter in Denver or Minnesota as cool as it would be. And while the case for the Sixers is clear, Joel Embiid’s availability and their lack of depth at the center spot make it far from a guarantee that they’ll stay healthy enough for LeBron to truly compete. But the one team, and the only team that truly delivers from both a basketball and a storytelling perspective is the Cleveland Cavaliers. It would be poetic for LeBron to finish his career in his home state where it all started. And from a basketball perspective, this Cavaliers team has been knocking on the door for the last few seasons, making it to the conference finals just last year, but falling short to the eventual champion, New York Knicks. If LeBron is able to put the Cavs over the top, delivering the city its 2nd championship and helping Donovan Mitchell and James Harden to their 1st in his last season, now that. That would be storybook.”,”ineligibleRegion”:[“BI”,”BY”,”CD”,”CF”,”CU”,”IQ”,”IR”,”KP”,”LB”,”LY”,”ML”,”NI”,”RU”,”SD”,”SO”,”SS”,”SY”,”UA”,”VE”,”YE”,”ZW”],”publisher”:{“@type”:”NewsMediaOrganization”,”@id”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/#publisher”,”name”:”The Athletic”,”url”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/”,”foundingDate”:”2016-01-25″,”logo”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”@id”:”https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”url”:”https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”contentUrl”:”https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”creditText”:”The Athletic”,”height”:”60″,”width”:”435″},”publishingPrinciples”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/edit-guidelines/”,”sameAs”:”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Athletic”},”author”:[{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Esfandiar Baraheni”}]}