{"id":2048980,"date":"2026-07-17T22:19:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2048980"},"modified":"2026-07-17T22:19:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:19:33","slug":"lebron-james-drops-a-trust-the-process-as-speculation-about-nba-destination-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2048980","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James drops a \u2018trust the process\u2019 as speculation about NBA destination continues"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"Article_ContentContainer__jBNW3 article-content-container bodytext1\">\n<p>LeBron James made another public appearance Friday with no real update regarding his next NBA team.<\/p>\n<p>According to a video posted to X by ESPN reporter Dave McMenamin, James, on stage at Fanatics Fest in New York, appeared to say he wanted to join a franchise that \u201cshares the same model as myself, and that\u2019s like practicing championship (habits) every day, but trusting the process more than anything.\u201d In the same answer, he said \u201ctrust the process\u201d again, which was a slogan tied to the Philadelphia 76ers\u2019 rebuild around Joel Embiid.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid1\" data-position=\"mid1\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>When James said the phrase, the large crowd on hand appeared to react. Someone with James on stage seemed to deny he was talking about the Sixers, and James added that he had used that phrase since he was drafted in 2003. \u201cI don\u2019t think Embiid was even born yet,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n<div data-ath-video-stream=\"8ecZjMg9IgMnWo6\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_Root__QeM_i\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_VideoWidth__XjNKI VideoHost_Portrait__XBaJC\">\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Root__AGckL\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Title__npf3B\">Where will LeBron James end up?<\/div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Authors__jxyYV\">The Athletic NBA Staff and Jeshua Kidd<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_VideoWrapper__Xgp47\">{&#8220;@context&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/schema.org&#8221;,&#8221;@type&#8221;:&#8221;VideoObject&#8221;,&#8221;@id&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/8ecZjMg9IgMnWo6\/&#8221;,&#8221;url&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/8ecZjMg9IgMnWo6\/&#8221;,&#8221;name&#8221;:&#8221;Where will LeBron James end up?&#8221;,&#8221;description&#8221;:&#8221;With his free agency decision still looming, we asked our reporters where they think LeBron James will play next.&#8221;,&#8221;uploadDate&#8221;:&#8221;2026-07-17T15:20:39.563Z&#8221;,&#8221;duration&#8221;:&#8221;PT52S&#8221;,&#8221;thumbnailUrl&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/cdn-media.theathletic.com\/video-stream\/auto-thumbnail\/8ecZjMg9IgMnWo6\/MJrJogZd5Z6K.0000000.jpg&#8221;,&#8221;contentUrl&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/video.nyt.com\/athletic\/streams\/8ecZjMg9IgMnWo6\/MJrJogZd5Z6K\/MJrJogZd5Z6K.m3u8&#8243;,&#8221;transcript&#8221;:&#8221;We asked our reporters, where will LeBron James end up? pretty far wherever I land. I&#8217;m gonna go do what I do best. I think he&#8217;s going to Cleveland. Cleveland, Cleveland, Cleveland, because he misses me. Uh, he&#8217;s definitely not going to Dallas for the oil, Gulf, Macau in Africa. So I, I think he&#8217;s gonna end up Cleveland back home. I think the draw of playing at home makes the most sense. It&#8217;s gonna be either Cleveland or Golden State. Play with Stephen Curry. If happiness is what it is, then it&#8217;s gotta either be going back home or going upstate Miami because he is a man who loves golf and he already did the Cavs rerun. I feel like if Giannis is really trying to talk me into starting this thing again in Miami, how could you say no to that? I would love to see him go to Philly. Philly makes a ton of sense, but I think he ends up in Cleveland. And then like my favorite fit is Minnesota. Like I&#8217;d love to see him play with and, and LaMelo. Like let&#8217;s, let&#8217;s get crazy.&#8221;,&#8221;ineligibleRegion&#8221;:[&#8220;BI&#8221;,&#8221;BY&#8221;,&#8221;CD&#8221;,&#8221;CF&#8221;,&#8221;CU&#8221;,&#8221;IQ&#8221;,&#8221;IR&#8221;,&#8221;KP&#8221;,&#8221;LB&#8221;,&#8221;LY&#8221;,&#8221;ML&#8221;,&#8221;NI&#8221;,&#8221;RU&#8221;,&#8221;SD&#8221;,&#8221;SO&#8221;,&#8221;SS&#8221;,&#8221;SY&#8221;,&#8221;UA&#8221;,&#8221;VE&#8221;,&#8221;YE&#8221;,&#8221;ZW&#8221;],&#8221;publisher&#8221;:{&#8220;@type&#8221;:&#8221;NewsMediaOrganization&#8221;,&#8221;@id&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/#publisher&#8221;,&#8221;name&#8221;:&#8221;The Athletic&#8221;,&#8221;url&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/&#8221;,&#8221;foundingDate&#8221;:&#8221;2016-01-25&#8243;,&#8221;logo&#8221;:{&#8220;@type&#8221;:&#8221;ImageObject&#8221;,&#8221;@id&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png&#8221;,&#8221;url&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png&#8221;,&#8221;contentUrl&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png&#8221;,&#8221;creditText&#8221;:&#8221;The Athletic&#8221;,&#8221;height&#8221;:&#8221;60&#8243;,&#8221;width&#8221;:&#8221;435&#8243;},&#8221;publishingPrinciples&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/edit-guidelines\/&#8221;,&#8221;sameAs&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Athletic&#8221;},&#8221;author&#8221;:[{&#8220;@type&#8221;:&#8221;Person&#8221;,&#8221;name&#8221;:&#8221;The Athletic NBA Staff and Jeshua Kidd&#8221;}]}<\/p>\n<div class=\"AspectRatioBox_root__AKv5b\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9 \/ 16;max-height:min(100%)\">\n<div class=\"AspectRatioBox_inner__86C_2\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9 \/ 16\">\n<div class=\"VideoStreamPlayer_GridStack__2H0p2\"><video preload=\"metadata\"><\/video><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Then, James either seemed to further the joke \u2014 or rope one or two other teams into it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cY\u2019all always think I\u2019m talk(ing) \u2026 OK, so we got (to) trust the process, and then if you get to a place where it\u2019s real sunny,\u201d James said, with the crowd seemingly reacting to that, too. According to McMenamin\u2019s video, there appeared to be boos.<\/p>\n<div id=\"top-league-content-root\"><\/div>\n<p>    {&#8220;endpoint&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com\/graphql&#8221;}<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReal sunny\u201d might\u2019ve been an allusion to the TV show \u201cIt\u2019s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,\u201d or it could have been a teasing of a potential destination with nice weather, such as Miami or San Francisco. Cleveland and Minnesota, and to a lesser extent Denver, do not have as nice weather.<\/p>\n<p>James, 41, is set to leave a team in free agency for the fourth time in his career, which is about to extend to 24 seasons. James took the stage Friday for a live recording of his YouTube Show \u201cThe Shop.\u201d He had a similar appearance Thursday at Fanatics Fest, offering up a nothing burger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7450439\/2026\/07\/16\/lebron-james-team-free-agency-fanatics-fest\/\">during a live recording<\/a> of his podcast \u201cMind the Game\u201d with co-host Tyrese Haliburton. James also appeared during a panel at the CNBC\/Boardroom Game Plan event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI won\u2019t hold you guys up too much longer,\u201d James said then.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LeBron James made another public appearance Friday with no real update regarding his next NBA team. According to a video posted to X by ESPN reporter Dave McMenamin, James, on stage at Fanatics Fest in New York, appeared to say he wanted to join a franchise that \u201cshares the same model as myself, and that\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-2048980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2048980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2048980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2048980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2048980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}