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LeBron James signed with the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2026 offseason after spending the previous eight seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n
PHILADELPHIA \u2014 LeBron James said his longstanding friendship with All-Star Tyrese Maxey and a desire to help Joel Embiid win his first NBA title played significant roles in his decision to sign a two-year, $8 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers in July.<\/p>\n
The 41-year-old James revealed scant details about the free-agency process on his \u201cMind the Game\u201d podcast with co-host Steve Nash that dropped Friday. James is scheduled to meet the press for the first time as a Sixer on Monday at the team\u2019s media day in Camden, New Jersey ahead of training camp opening next week.<\/p>\n
A four-time NBA champion, James wrote on social media when he signed with the Sixers that he felt he was \u201cdone\u201d when his 23rd NBA season ended, his last with the Los Angeles Lakers. But after time away with family, and still feeling physically and mentally strong in offseason workouts, James decided he wanted to keep playing.<\/p>\n
James has won NBA championships with every team he\u2019s played for: the Lakers, Miami and Cleveland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019m more in love with the pursuit of how much more can I defy the odds,\u201d James said on the podcast.<\/p>\n
James said \u201cPhilly was not even a question\u201d early in his decision making until the Sixers pulled the surprising deal with Boston for NBA Finals MVP and champion Jaylen Brown. James and Maxey share an agent and have been friends and workout partners since the Sixers guard broke into the league, a friendship that turned into a recruiting pitch for the NBA\u2019s career scoring leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I became a free agent and we decided to let the Lakers know that I wouldn\u2019t be returning, he was one of the first people that was on my line, calling me,\u201d James said of Maxey.<\/p>\n
James also was intrigued with trying to help the oft-injured Embiid win his first title. Embiid has won an NBA MVP, two scoring titles, and Olympic gold medal, but has yet to lead the Sixers out of the second round of the playoffs since Philadelphia selected him third overall in the 2014 draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s done everything in our league, and the only thing he has not done is win a championship. And I want to try to help him get that first one,\u201d James said. \u201cHe has a city on his back. He\u2019s been \u2018The Process\u2019 for 10 years, 12 years, however long he\u2019s been there. But I think it\u2019s time we even get you deeper into The Process. And I hope that I can be, kind of, that final little piece that can help him get over the hump.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sixers went 45-37 last season and were swept in the second round by the eventual NBA champion New York Knicks.<\/p>\n
James\u2019 r\u00e9sum\u00e9 is beyond compare in NBA history. He\u2019s a 22-time All-Star, a 21-time All-NBA selection, a four-time Most Valuable Player, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, a three-time All-Star Game MVP, and was a member of the NBA\u2019s 75th anniversary team.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also coming off a season where he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game. For his career, he\u2019s averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists in more than 1,600 games.<\/p>\n
James\u2019 eight seasons with the Lakers were the longest continuous stretch with a single team of his NBA career, and he helped the franchise win its 17th championship in 2020. He even became the first father to play alongside his son in league history, teaming up with guard Bronny James for the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
James called it \u201chumbling\u201d to play for the Lakers and expressed disappointment he wasn\u2019t able to enjoy a championship parade because of the 2020 pandemic. James called Los Angeles home and said it would be for \u201cthe foreseeable future.\u201d<\/p>\n
So why not return to the Lakers? Or reunite with the Heat or Cavaliers or stay in California and sign with the Golden State Warriors?<\/p>\n
James offered no real insight to any teams he may have talked to or how close he may have been with signing with another team. He said he wanted to bring the championship blueprint to Philadelphia and lead the Sixers to their first title since 1983. And he felt great during workouts in the summer, so why stop now?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you still have an opportunity to do what you love, then why just say I\u2019m done? What is the reason? Do you have a real reason?,\u201d James asked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James signed with the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2026 offseason after spending the previous eight seasons with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,283683,105],"class_list":["post-627514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-lebron-james-tyrese-maxey-joel-embiid-philadelphia-76ers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}