{"id":308527,"date":"2026-10-17T05:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T05:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/308527\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T05:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T05:18:13","slug":"lebron-james-calls-helicopter-rides-transportation-after-he-soars-on-big-dunk-in-76ers-home-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/308527\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James calls helicopter rides ‘transportation’ after he soars on big dunk in 76ers home debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA \u2013 LeBron James locked eyes on the basketball the moment Tyrese Maxey lobbed a half-court pass<\/a> in his new teammate’s direction.<\/p>\n

James snared the ball and brought it home for a two-handed dunk that sent the 76ers’ crowd of 19,746 fans \u2014 yes, a sellout in the final preseason game \u2014 into a frenzy.<\/p>\n

Just wait until it counts.<\/p>\n

James performed his famed chalk toss and was introduced to a roaring ovation on Friday night in his first preseason game for the 76ers in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old James<\/a>, who joined the 76ers this summer for his NBA-record 24th season, gave a sneak peek of the fun that could be ahead in his first season with the Sixers. <\/p>\n

He scored eight points and had eight rebounds against the Boston Celtics, but it was the dunk off a pass from Maxey \u2014 a close friend whom James has credited with swaying his decision to sign with the Sixers \u2014 that made him a crowd favorite in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a connection that we have,\u201d James said. \u201cSome of the best things for us offensively is going to be to get up the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

James got some nice air on the dunk. He’s getting sky high in the helicopter<\/a> he takes after practice from the Sixers’ New Jersey practice facility to a helipad in New York. There have been a few times already when Sixers doing post-practice interviews have had their answers drowned out by the whirring overhead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve done it before,\u201d James said. \u201cJust another way of transportation. That’s all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public address announcer Matt Cord offered a full-throated \u201cAt 6-9, from St. Vincent-St. Mary\u2019s, No. 23, LeBron James! James!\u201d for the intros. Joel Embiid still got the final introduction.<\/p>\n

While nothing from Boston’s 125-120 overtime victory will count toward James’ career stats, Sixers fans had been waiting to catch a glimpse of him in his No. 23 jersey since he signed with the team in July. Scores of kids in Sixers jerseys crowded over the home team entrance canopy and screamed for James<\/a> to stop for a picture or an autograph.<\/p>\n

The arena ushers behind the Sixers’ bench kept saying \u201cKeep walking!\u201d to the gaggle of fans and slow walkers who stopped to watch James in warmups. One constantly barked, \u201cYou can’t stand here unless you’ve got a ticket!\u201d<\/p>\n

None of the stragglers had one.<\/p>\n

James did welcome one boy and one girl to the bench with him after he finished shooting and posed for a quick photo.<\/p>\n

The Sixers played all of their starters except for VJ Edgecombe. Jaylen Brown<\/a> scored 20 points in his first game against the Celtics since the 2024 NBA Finals MVP was traded to the Sixers in the offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played there for 10 years, so it will never be out of the way,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

James sat out the Sixers’ home preseason opener but played in a scrimmage that was open to the public<\/a> and drew 10,000 fans.<\/p>\n

He then made his preseason debut<\/a> last week at Brooklyn. He had 10 points, five assists and four rebounds in the first half.<\/p>\n

The Sixers play their season opener on Tuesday against New York at Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks will raise the banner to celebrate their NBA championship. Philadelphia’s home opener is Thursday against Cleveland, followed by back-to-back games over the weekend.<\/p>\n

James spent the last eight seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers before signing a two-year deal with the Sixers for the league minimum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting there,\u201d James said. \u201cWe\u2019re a couple of weeks in. We\u2019re still working on our rhythm, working on our kinks. It\u2019s not going to be perfect. Obviously, we\u2019re just getting together, so it\u2019s not going to be perfect. But we\u2019ve got some things we can build on.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\nSee AP\u2019s full NBA coverage here<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2013 LeBron James locked eyes on the basketball the moment Tyrese Maxey lobbed a half-court pass in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14670,5955,18831,126434,69,71,70,726,12920,10795],"class_list":["post-308527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-joel-embiid","tag-lebron-james","tag-matt-cord","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-sports","tag-tyrese-maxey","tag-vj-edgecombe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308527","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=308527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}