{"id":302848,"date":"2026-10-09T04:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T04:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/302848\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T04:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T04:30:07","slug":"lebron-james-shines-in-pre-season-debut-for-revamped-philadelphia-76ers-philadelphia-76ers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/302848\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James shines in pre-season debut for revamped Philadelphia 76ers | Philadelphia 76ers"},"content":{"rendered":"

NBA superstar LeBron James delivered a solid first-half performance in his first pre-season game for Philadelphia on Thursday, but the new-look 76ers fell 114-108 to the Brooklyn Nets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James, the NBA\u2019s all-time leading scorer, announced in July that he had signed a two-year, $8m deal with the 76ers, ending weeks of speculation over where the four-time NBA<\/a> champion would land as a free agent after eight seasons and one title with the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old, entering a record-extending 24th NBA season, won two titles with Miami, another with Cleveland and a fourth with the Lakers. He is aiming to help the Sixers win their first championship since Julius Erving led the team to the title in 1983.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s game marked his first chance to play alongside new teammates Joel Embiid, VJ Edgecombe, Tyrese Maxey and Jaylen Brown, who arrived from the Boston Celtics.<\/p>\n

James scored 10 points, making his only shot from the field and all eight of his free-throw attempts. He added four rebounds, five assists and a steal in 18 minutes and four seconds, all in the first half.<\/p>\n

Brown led all scorers with 18 points. Julius Randle had 14 for the Nets, who outscored the Sixers 37-23 in the third quarter to take control.<\/p>\n

But all eyes were on James, starting with his signature pre-game chalk toss, performed for the first time in a 76ers uniform.<\/p>\n

James smoothly directed the Sixers\u2019 offense during his time on the floor, recording all five of his assists in the first quarter and combining effectively with Maxey.<\/p>\n

LeBron James performs his signature pre-game chalk toss before making his Philadelphia 76ers debut against the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday night at Barclays Center. Photograph: Jesse D Garrabrant\/NBAE\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there was some really good things happening, you know, right off the bat,\u201d 76ers coach Nick Nurse said after seeing his starters together for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bunch of back cuts and good passing et cetera … there were segments where obviously we turned the ball over a lot … just the little clunky segments, too. But, again, it\u2019s pre-season, first time they\u2019re together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you look at it as what\u2019s good and what are the learning experiences, things that we can improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 76ers have two more pre-season games, both against Boston, before opening the regular season against the defending champion New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on 20 October.<\/p>\n

James\u2019s arrival has already left the 76ers contending with distractions away from the court.<\/p>\n

The superstar took to Instagram to dispute a claim made by a play-by-play announcer during the team\u2019s first pre-season game on Monday that he had admonished Embiid for arriving late to practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe ain\u2019t been late, so stop the lie,\u201d James posted.<\/p>\n

James acknowledged at the team\u2019s media day last month that the attention surrounding the 76ers would be \u201cdoubled, tripled and quadrupled now that I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBA superstar LeBron James delivered a solid first-half performance in his first pre-season game for Philadelphia on Thursday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-302848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302848","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=302848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}