As the NBA world waits for LeBron James to reveal where he\u2019ll play this upcoming season, the Sixers continue to make their pitch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sixers owner Josh Harris had a brief and friendly conversation with James on Friday, July 17, during a VIP event at the Fanatics Fest in New York, a source confirmed with NBC Sports Philadelphia\u2019s John Clark.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The source also confirmed that Harris \u2013 along with Sixers players Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and Jaylen Brown \u2013 have all let James know that they would love to have him join the team and that the city of Philadelphia would welcome him with open arms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Sixers are one of the final teams that James is reportedly considering joining. The other teams include the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors. The NBA’s career scoring king and current free agent spoke publicly for the first time in weeks Thursday afternoon, though stopped short of revealing which team he’ll choose to play for this fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The four-time NBA champion was recording an episode of his \u201cMind the Game\u201d podcast alongside guest co-host Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers in New York on the opening day of Fanatics Fest, a four-day event featuring dozens of athletes, celebrities and sports legends.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An 11-year-old asked James about free agency and developing his next team \u2014 \u201cfirst of all, that was a hell of a question and some of the media people here probably should learn from the young fella,” James said \u2014 and the youngster got perhaps the best answer of the session, with James indicating that the 2026-27 season may not necessarily be his last as a player.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a big decision for not only myself, but for my family as well,\u201d James said. \u201cJust for the last part of my career and where I want to spend the last few years or the last year or the last two years of my NBA career … I’m going to try to fit into whatever team I’m going into, but also give them all the tools and give them all the knowledge that I’ve been able to grasp over the last 23 years. I know the game. I know the ins and outs of the game of basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Friday, July 17, the second day\u00a0 of Fanatics Fest, James had Sixers fans in a frenzy during a live taping of his show \u201cThe Shop.\u201d James repeatedly used the term \u201ctrusting the process\u201d when talking about making his decision. \u201cTrust the process\u201d was the slogan of former Sixers president and general manager Sam Hinkie that was embraced by the team\u2019s fanbase.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even after a mixed reaction from the crowd, which included Sixers fans, James didn\u2019t reveal his decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bob Myers, the president of sports for Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, openly discussed James\u2019 free agency on the \u201cGame Over\u201d podcast with Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul and Max Kellerman.<\/a> Paul had named the Sixers as a potential destination for James<\/a> on a previous podcast.\u00a0<\/p>\n Myers led the front office search this summer that concluded with Mike Gansey becoming the Sixers\u2019 new president of basketball operations.<\/a> He touched on many topics in the podcast, including the intangibles of NBA team-building and the current state of the Eastern Conference. As far as James, he recognized that the 22-time All-Star has a deep understanding of the NBA and is unlikely to be dramatically swayed by any individual pitch.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s be honest: Whatever I say doesn\u2019t really matter to what he\u2019s going to do,\u201d Myers said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m OK saying that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, Myers didn\u2019t mind laying out a case for the Sixers, who feel they\u2019ve seriously strengthened their team by trading for Jaylen Brown.<\/a> They\u2019ve also drafted Labaron Philon Jr.<\/a> and signed Dean Wade<\/a>, Anfernee Simons<\/a> and Ariel Hukporti<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re talking about the Sixers, if he was here I\u2019d say, \u2018I honestly believe this is your best chance to win. You have to decide all the other things that are equally important.\u2019 It\u2019s his life, right? He has to play. He has to face the scrutiny of his decision,\u201d Myers said. \u201cHalf the people will say, \u2018You should\u2019ve done this\u2019 or \u2018You should\u2019ve done that\u2019 and criticize him for whatever. It\u2019s his life; he\u2019s been through all that.”<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I would just say is, \u2018If it\u2019s about winning, let\u2019s talk about this team, because you can win here in Philadelphia.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the NBA world waits for LeBron James to reveal where he\u2019ll play this upcoming season, the Sixers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[66348,3013,355,2113,99],"class_list":["post-772406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-76ers","tag-lebron-james","tag-nba","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}