![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/DOI4D5QPD5ULANIR25URE3NSLY.jpg\")
Philadelphia 76ers’ LeBron James, left, dribbles against Brooklyn Nets’ Julius Randle, right, during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Pamela Smith) <\/p>\nPhiladelphia 76ers’ LeBron James, left, dribbles against Brooklyn Nets’ Julius Randle, right, during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Pamela Smith) <\/p>\n
Big Threes have long been part of the NBA.<\/p>\n
Bill Russell, Bob Cousy and Tom Heinsohn showed in Boston that having a superstar trio on the same team can work wonders. So, too, did Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy with the Los Angeles Lakers. Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish in their Celtics era. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman in Chicago. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili in San Antonio. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant in Golden State. There have been plenty of others.<\/p>\n
And in Miami, there was Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James.<\/p>\n
They spent four years together with the Heat, went to four NBA Finals, won two championships and were the biggest thing in basketball. Many thought it would be easy. It wasn\u2019t. Miami started 9-8 in the trio\u2019s first season together and the road was rocky for much longer than anyone imagined.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a wild ride,\u201d Bosh said.<\/p>\n
James, as he now gets set to be part of another Big Three \u2014 a Big Four, really, alongside the likes of fellow superstars Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Jaylen Brown on the now star-studded Philadelphia 76ers \u2014 remembers those early Miami days well. Perhaps that\u2019s why he sounded the alarm about what the next few months could be like for these 76ers.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone wants instant oatmeal,\u201d James said. \u201cYou just put the oatmeal in the bowl, you put some water and then throw it in the microwave. In a minute and a half, you\u2019ve got something to eat, you\u2019re ready to go. If you want to do something special, it takes time. … In order for us to be great, we have to do things that are just not comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Translation: Get ready, 76ers.<\/p>\n
Such is Big Three or Big Four life.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou really have to stay solid within the team,\u201d said Bosh, who might have sacrificed more stats than anyone during that four-year run in Miami. \u201cAt the end of the day, the main stat was the \u2018W\u2019 and putting one in the \u2018W\u2019 column. You can average a bunch of points and be out of the league. You can average a bunch of points and not be competing for a championship. They\u2019re going to have to remember the priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when tough times come \u2014 not if, but when \u2014 handle it and talk about it, communicate, and remember why you\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/VCLEFBL7I7P6SHF5RO5FBWAYPQ.jpg\")
Brooklyn Nets’ Moritz Wagner, left, and Philadelphia 76ers’ Joel Embiid, right, compete for the ball during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Pamela Smith) Stats will be sacrificed<\/p>\n
There are statistical sacrifices that will have to be made if the 76ers are going to get to where they want to go this season and win the title that has eluded Philly since 1983. Even with Embiid missing more than half of the 2025-26 season, he topped the 1,000-point mark \u2014 as did James (with the Los Angeles Lakers), Brown (with Boston), Maxey and Philly\u2019s star-in-waiting in VJ Edgecombe. There hasn\u2019t been a championship team with five 1,000-point scorers on the roster since the 1978-79 Seattle SuperSonics.<\/p>\n
Combined, James, Maxey, Embiid, Edgecombe and Brown took 234 shots in clutch situations \u2014 game margin within five points, five minutes or less on the clock in the fourth quarter \u2014 last season. That simply won\u2019t happen this season, since most teams don\u2019t combine for that many shots in clutch times over a whole season. There will be moments where Philly\u2019s star players are used to having the ball in their hands \u2014 but now will see teammates in those roles at times.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a fine line. The Warriors won a title in 2017 with Curry, Thompson, Durant and Draymond Green all needing to adjust their roles, at least on some level. But as Curry pointed out when that title series was over, that didn\u2019t mean any of them could suddenly become passive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all needed to be aggressive and be the players that we are in what we bring to the table every single night,\u201d Curry said after that series \u2014 against James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. \u201cWe can all show up every night and be ourselves and really achieve the potential that we all have together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roles will change as well, at times<\/p>\n
James set the tone for this Philly team over the summer when he took a pay cut of roughly 92% from last season and agreed to play this season for the bargain price of $3.9 million. He doesn\u2019t need more money. The lure of becoming the first player in NBA history to win a championship with four different franchises seems to be enough motivation.<\/p>\n
And, in fairness, it\u2019s also easy for the player who holds the NBA scoring record to say that stats don\u2019t matter. Officially, he took only one shot from the field in his preseason debut with the 76ers; he also drew enough fouls to get eight more shots from the line. (He made them all, for what it\u2019s worth.) Nobody knows what\u2019ll happen this season, but it seems highly unlikely that James will clamor for more shots. That\u2019s never been his style. It would be ideal if everyone in Philly felt the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy focus is winning,\u201d Brown said over the summer. \u201cOther people\u2019s focus may be scoring. My focus going into every practice, every meeting, every shootaround, every film session is like, \u2018How do we win, night in and night out?\u2019 Sometimes that may change, sometimes it may look different, but whatever it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s reasonable to think that Maxey, Embiid, Brown and James could all see their scoring averages drop this season for the greater good. There will be nights when the spotlight won\u2019t be on certain individuals. There will be nights when someone gets a ton of shots and someone gets very few. The most successful Big Threes all figured out how to handle such things.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia will have to do the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got the talent. Whatever,\u201d Maxey said. \u201cIf we\u2019re not willing to sacrifice, if we\u2019re not willing to put in the work, it ain\u2019t going to mean nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full NBA coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philadelphia 76ers’ LeBron James, left, dribbles against Brooklyn Nets’ Julius Randle, right, during the first half of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-306166","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\/306166","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=306166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}