{"id":411018,"date":"2026-07-24T17:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T17:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/411018\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T17:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T17:58:09","slug":"lebron-james-chooses-the-philadelphia-76ers-will-sign-a-two-year-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/411018\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James chooses the Philadelphia 76ers, will sign a two-year deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After nearly a month of mulling his options, LeBron James<\/a> announced in a social media post that he will sign with the Philadelphia 76ers on a two-year $8-million contract. <\/p>\n

James, a small forward, will join guards Tyrese Maxey and V.J. Edgecombe, forward Jaylen Brown and center Joel Embiid in a star-studded 76ers lineup. James\u2019 deal includes a player option, Klutch Sports Group CEO Rich Paul told ESPN.<\/p>\n

In a series of X.com posts<\/a>, James said he contemplated retirement before choosing the 76ers over several other suitors. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was honest at that last press conference when I said I needed to look at myself and decide if I still love this game. I still truly love this game, and I have more to give,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0thought I was done when the season ended. I wasn’t ready to announce it, and I knew I needed some time to really decide, but I was pretty sure I played my last game. I was honest at that last press conference when I said I needed to look at myself and deicide if I still love<\/p>\n

\u2014 LeBron James (@KingJames) July 24, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

James will hope to break a 43-year championship drought for the 76ers, much the same way he erased a 52-year streak without a title for the city of Cleveland when he won a championship with the Cavaliers<\/a> in 2016.<\/p>\n

This could be the final free agency decision James will make as the 41-year-old enters a record-breaking 24th season.<\/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?\u201d James wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cI 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.<\/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<\/p>\n

The 76ers finished seventh in the Eastern Conference with a record of 45-37 last season. However, they traded for Brown, a bona fide superstar, on July 6, sending Paul George, two first-round draft picks and two second-round picks to the Boston Celtics. Brown, a nine-year veteran, averaged 28.7 points a game last season and helped the Celtics win the NBA title in 2024.<\/p>\n

This was the fourth foray into free agency for James, 41, who will begin his unprecedented 24th NBA season in October. He played the previous eight seasons with the Lakers, his longest continuous stint with any franchise.<\/p>\n

It was widely reported<\/a> that James would accept the $3.9-million veterans\u2019 minimum exception. He will be paid far less than the approximately $57 million new teammates Embid and Brown each will make, but James has made a record $584 million in career salary and his net worth<\/a> is an estimated $1.4 billion thanks to endorsements and investments. <\/p>\n

The Akron, Ohio, native played his first seven seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers after being the first overall draft pick in 2003 at age 18, spent four with the Miami Heat then returned to Cleveland for an additional four years before signing with the Lakers ahead of the 2018-2019 season. He has won four NBA championships, including one with the Lakers in 2020.<\/p>\n

James informed the Lakers<\/a> on June 30 that he would be signing elsewhere. Since then several teams made pitches for his services, with the Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves considered favorites.<\/p>\n

Not only fans of those teams were anxious to learn his decision. Last week NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the regular-season schedule had not been set because the league is waiting on James.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to finish up the schedule. And where LeBron plays will affect the schedule,\u201d Silver said at the CNBC Sport x Boardroom Game Plan Summit in New York. \u201cSo I would like him to make his announcement already, so we can finish the schedule, because, as you might imagine, the teams are calling us, the networks are calling us, and everybody wants to lock in the schedule. But it will influence how we set the schedule, how we set opening week, Christmas Day, etc. So I need him to make a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

A day later, James stood on stage at Fanatics Fest in New York and said he wanted to join a team that \u201cshares the same model as myself, and that\u2019s like practicing championship [habits] every day, but trusting the process more than anything.\u201d <\/p>\n

A false alarm became part of the narrative when the Heat posted a link July 21 to a scheduled live stream titled \u201cLeBron James Introductory Press Conference\u201d to its YouTube channel. A team spokesperson said it was a mistake, that the club\u2019s social media department was preparing for the possibility of James\u2019 signing. The post was deleted.<\/p>\n

James has announced his agreements with new teams in various ways. When he left the Cavaliers in 2010 to team with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Heat, he announced his choice on a live television special called \u201cThe Decision,\u201d saying \u201cI\u2019m taking my talents to South Beach.\u201d On Friday morning, a thread on X relayed the big news. <\/p>\n

Fans in Cleveland burned his jersey, and Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert posted a letter on the team website calling James\u2019 decision a \u201ccowardly betrayal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four years and two NBA championships with the Heat later, James returned to his home state of Ohio to play for the Cavaliers again in 2014. His first-person Sports Illustrated essay<\/a> written with senior writer Lee Jenkins shared his \u201cI\u2019m Coming Home\u201d choice with the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always believed that I\u2019d return to Cleveland and finish my career there,\u201d James wrote. \u201cI just didn\u2019t know when. After the season, free agency wasn\u2019t even a thought. But I have two boys and my wife, Savannah, is pregnant with a girl. I started thinking about what it would be like to raise my family in my hometown. I looked at other teams, but I wasn\u2019t going to leave Miami for anywhere except Cleveland.\u201d <\/p>\n

James led the Cavaliers to four consecutive NBA Finals and a championship in 2016 when Cleveland overcame a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Warriors. It was the greatest NBA Finals comeback in history and brought the Cavaliers their first title.<\/p>\n

But it turns out most of his child-rearing came in Los Angeles. In 2018, James decided not to pick up his player option and signed a four-year, $153.3-million contract<\/a> to play for the Lakers, choosing them over the 76ers and a return to the Cavaliers. His salary escalated each year, rising to $52.6 million last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cLA has welcomed the arrival of Rabbit, Logo, Stumpy, Big Dipper, Captain, Silk, Magic, Big Game, Diesel, Mamba, Spaniard and now welcomes a King!!\u201d Lakers co-owner Joey Buss tweeted.<\/a> <\/p>\n

In James\u2019 second season in L.A., the Lakers won their 17th NBA championship<\/a> in a bubble at Walt Disney World to cap the pandemic-shortened 2020 season<\/a>. James notched a triple-double in the clinching Game 6 and earned Finals most valuable player for the fourth time in his career.<\/p>\n

James set the league all-time scoring record while wearing the purple and gold, but his eight seasons with the Lakers also included failures. The 2021-22 season is widely regarded as the most disappointing in team history. The overwhelming favorite in Las Vegas to win the championship when the season began, the Lakers finished 33-49 and missed the playoffs. <\/p>\n

The Lakers never made it past the Western Conference finals over the next four seasons, including getting swept in the conference semifinals <\/a>by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2026. James averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists last season while adding to his list of NBA records, setting marks for games played, all-time wins and field goals made.<\/p>\n

The Lakers pivoted quickly after James announced he wouldn\u2019t return, overhauling the roster to complement star guards Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. They traded for 7-foot-2 center Walker Kessler and signed free agents Sandro Mamukelashvili, Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton, Matisse Thybulle, Ziaire Williams and Kevon Looney.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, James methodically listened to pitches from a handful of teams, ultimately settling on the 76ers.<\/p>\n

Rich Paul, James\u2019 agent and close friend, said on a podcast Monday that the ample time James took making the decision was necessary because the choice was difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important for people to understand: We\u2019re not making this about attention and a spectacle,\u201d Paul said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about a \u2018Decision\u2019 or anything like that. He has a choice to make. He has a business choice to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giving himself the best shot at a fifth title was key. James has played in 302 postseason games, by far the most of any NBA player<\/a>, and scored 20 or more points in 261 of them. His teams are 42-15 in playoff series and 188-114 in games. He has scored the most points in the playoffs (8,521) in addition to the most points in the regular season (43,440). <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing what he\u2019s done for the sport, for the league, and he deserves the opportunities that were presented to him to be able to make his own decision on what\u2019s best for him and his family,\u201d Silver said last week. \u201cSo I completely respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After nearly a month of mulling his options, LeBron James announced in a social media post that he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[39442,164623,17634,67418,6848,17119,48,52,51,1415,13505,47,50,49,16133,35425,80676,164622,278,427,72],"class_list":["post-411018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-big-game","tag-career-salary","tag-choice","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-decision","tag-favorite","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lakers","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba-championship","tag-philadelphia-76er","tag-regular-season-schedule","tag-season","tag-team","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}