{"id":822140,"date":"2026-07-25T03:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T03:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/822140\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T03:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T03:10:10","slug":"lebron-james-to-join-philadelphia-76ers-for-24th-nba-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/822140\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James to join Philadelphia 76ers for 24th NBA season"},"content":{"rendered":"

LeBron James has decided to join the Philadelphia 76ers for the final chapter of his NBA<\/a> career, forgoing bigger paydays for one more shot at a championship with a franchise that has not won a title in 43 years.<\/p>\n

The US league\u2019s all-time leading scorer, who had the basketball world on tenterhooks for weeks awaiting his decision on what team he would join for his record-extending 24th NBA season, delivered the news on Friday in a series of social media posts.<\/p>\n

James spent the last eight seasons of his glittering career with the Los Angeles Lakers, leading them to a title in 2020 after two separate stints with the Cleveland Cavaliers and four years with the Miami Heat.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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 James wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe I can help make the Philadelphia 76ers a championship team and I am so excited to energise a new fan base and start this incredible journey one last time. Thank you LA. Miami I\u2019ll forever love and Northeast Ohio will always be home!\u201d<\/p>\n

James did not disclose terms of the deal but ESPN reported that the four-time champion signed a two-year, $8million (A$11.5m) contract with a player option.<\/p>\n

A number of teams had been pursuing James, with Cleveland, Miami, the Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves all believed to have been interested in the high-profile free agent.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old James, who last March surpassed Robert Parish\u2019s record for most career regular-season games played, has continued to perform at an elite level despite his age.<\/p>\n

He earned a league-record 22nd consecutive All-Star selection last February during a season in which he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists over 60 games.<\/p>\n

His season ended when the Lakers were swept from the second round of the playoffs in May and he initially thought about retiring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James has decided to join the Philadelphia 76ers for the final chapter of his NBA career, forgoing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,1625,88824,3863,588,85],"class_list":["post-822140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-lifestyle","tag-national-basketball-association-nba","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822140","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=822140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}