LeBron James is signing with the Philadelphia 76ers on a two-year, $8m deal that includes a player option. Klutch Sports Group CEO Rich Paul confirmed the terms of the agreement to ESPN, and James addressed the move in a post on X on Friday morning, saying it came after he strongly considered retirement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The move pairs the NBA\u2019s all-time leading scorer with Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and the newly acquired Jaylen Brown as Philadelphia bolster their roster in pursuit of a first NBA<\/a> championship since 1983. James arrives after spending the past eight seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n The deal gives James the flexibility to become a free agent again after one season while limiting the 76ers\u2019 long-term financial commitment. James made nearly $53m with the Lakers last season.<\/p>\n The 41-year-old wrote in his X post that he believed he was \u201cdone\u201d and had played the final game of his storied NBA career before deciding to sign with Philadelphia for a record 24th season.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t ready to announce it, and I knew I needed some time to really decide, but I was pretty sure I played my last game,\u201d James rote. \u201cI was honest at that last press conference when I said I needed to look at myself and deicide if I still love this game. I still truly love this game, and I have more to give.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last few weeks have really been special. I\u2019ve never been able to have no clue what to do and take real time to just think. I\u2019ve had an incredible few months with all the people I love trying to figure it all out. This is my last decision. I\u2019m not going for money. I\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The 76ers went 45-37 last season and were swept in the second round of the playoffs by the eventual champion New York Knicks. They have been active this offseason, acquiring Brown, a five-time All-Star and the 2024 Finals MVP, earlier this month via trade. They have not advanced past the second round of the playoffs since 2001.<\/p>\n Jaylen Brown and LeBron James, pictured in a 2018 game between the Celtics and the Cavaliers, will be teammates in Philadelphia. Photograph: Cj Gunther\/EPA<\/p>\n James is a four-time NBA champion, four-time MVP and the league\u2019s all-time leading scorer. He is the NBA\u2019s oldest active player and averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists for the Lakers last season. His announcement at the end of June that he would not return to the Lakers led to much speculation about his next destination, with Golden State, Cleveland and Miami \u2013 he led the latter two teams to championships \u2013 all floated<\/a> as potential landing spots.<\/p>\n The signing will become official once it is completed under NBA rules.<\/p>\n \u201cThank you LA. Miami I\u2019ll forever love and Northeast Ohio will always home!\u201d James said in his post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James is signing with the Philadelphia 76ers on a two-year, $8m deal that includes a player option.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-821311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}