\u201clast decision\u201d<\/a> of his playing career \u2014 and, finally, Raphael can say the billboard investment from eight years ago paid off.<\/p>\n\u201cI was in the middle of a board meeting and my phone was going off like something was on fire,\u201d said Raphael, the co-CEO of Power Home Remodeling, a Pennsylvania-based firm with offices around the country. \u201cAnd it was people from all walks of life, employees, former employees, friends from all over the country being like: \u2018It worked. Process completed.\u2019 It was the coolest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The original billboard idea was loosely based on the award-winning 2017 film \u201cThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,\u201d and was simply intended to be something fun.<\/p>\n
It wound up going viral.<\/p>\n
Raphael ordered billboards with the messaging of \u201cPhilly Wants LeBron\u201d and \u201cComplete The Process\u201d \u2014 a nod to the 76ers\u2019 infamous \u201cprocess\u201d of rebuilding, with hopes of becoming a contender. The third billboard showed where James would fit on the court with the other Sixers starters at the time: Dario Saric, Ben Simmons, Robert Covington and Joel Embiid. Of those, only Embiid remains with the 76ers.<\/p>\n
Raphael considered ordering more billboards this summer but didn\u2019t place any orders. Turns out, he didn\u2019t need to.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just wanted to drop a seed that Philly wanted him,\u201d Raphael said. \u201cI think a lot of people think of Philly as a great sports town, but opposing teams think of it as kind of an intimidating place. And we just wanted to drop a seed that he would be welcomed here and he\u2019d love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raphael\u2019s company got some name recognition from the billboard move in 2018, and he said it was a great morale boost to employees. And he fully believes James coming to Philadelphia, to play alongside Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown and VJ Edgecombe, is going to pay off for a city that hasn\u2019t seen its NBA team win a championship since 1983.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhilly, right now, is on fire,\u201d Raphael said. \u201cAt that moment, we became an undeniable contender. And if he comes to Philadelphia and we get that title and that trophy after 44 years, the country will see what Sixers fans are about.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By TIM REYNOLDS LeBron James wound up picking Philadelphia, and no billboards were required. Back in February 2018,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4794,69,71,70,726],"class_list":["post-252516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-nba","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}