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Nobody throws a premature party like the 76ers<\/a>. <\/p>\n From the 2012 blowout to welcome Andrew Bynum to a rally in 2016 at the Art Museum after going 10-72 and getting the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft<\/a> \u2014 a pick that turned out to be Ben Simmons \u2014 to the parade of big-name free agents and trade pieces who have come and gone since, this franchise has forever reveled in the shock and awe of a stunning acquisition.<\/p>\n Its introduction of Jaylen Brown<\/a> on Thursday \u2014 at a recreation center in southwest Philadelphia, per Brown\u2019s request \u2014 featured cheerleaders, neighborhood children, dozens of boosters, members of the organization, and music with a dance-party feel. <\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Mike Gansey still has to \u2018pinch myself a little bit\u2019 after landing LeBron James and Jaylen Brown in stunning Sixers overhaul<\/a><\/p>\n The whole affair had the Sixers\u2019 customary pomp. Maybe, this time, the circumstances are different. There\u2019s actually reason to think they might.<\/p>\n The trade for Brown and LeBron James<\/a>\u2019s decision to sign here give the Sixers more than just two outstanding players \u2014 one still in his prime, one still capable of being great, even at age 41. They now have two players who have shown they can handle, and even thrive amid, the highest of expectations and the heaviest of pressure. <\/p>\n The most promising Sixers teams of the last 10 years have tended to shrivel up in those situations. The 2019 team had a two-games-to-one lead on the Toronto Raptors, with Game 4 at home \u2026 and lost the game and, eventually, the series<\/a>. <\/p>\n The 2021 club was also up 2-1, this time against an inferior team in the Atlanta Hawks, squandering an 18-point lead in Game 4 and a 26-point lead in Game 5 and losing Game 7 \u2026 at home. The 2023 club was up 3-2 on Brown\u2019s Boston Celtics and \u2026 well \u2026 you remember<\/a>.<\/p>\n Have Brown and James been in similar scenarios? Have they had opportunities to close out playoff series and failed? Of course. They also have five championships and 12 Finals appearances between them, and they\u2019ve met the measure of those moments, too, more often than anyone else on the Sixers\u2019 roster.<\/p>\n Few players in NBA history had as much on the line as James did in the 2012 Eastern Conference finals, when his Miami Heat \u2014 one season after losing in the 2011 Finals to the Dallas Mavericks, James still without a championship ring at the time \u2014 were down 3-2 to the Celtics and facing a Game 6 in Boston. <\/p>\n He displayed perhaps the best performance of his career that night: 45 points, 15 rebounds, five assists in a 98-79 Heat victory, then another 31 points and 12 boards in Miami\u2019s Game 7 win.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Jaylen Brown on joining Sixers: ‘Winning is the agenda’<\/a><\/p>\n A comparable comeback against the San Antonio Spurs in the 2013 Finals, the Cavaliers\u2019 charge back to beat the Golden State Warriors in 2016. These transcendent performances have to remain in James\u2019 past and would be too much to ask of him now, but they at least dispel any ridiculous notions that any important game would be too much for him, even at his advanced age. <\/p>\n He\u2019ll be calm. He\u2019ll be cool. It doesn\u2019t mean the Sixers are assured of winning such games, only that no one is likely to see the same sad scenes that played out here with Simmons and James Harden<\/a>. No one is likely to see a Sixers star choke.<\/p>\n \u201cJames doesn\u2019t need to work himself into a frenzy, into an angry, unnatural lather,\u201d Adrian Wojnarowski, who covered that Heat-Celtics series for Yahoo! Sports, wrote after Game 6<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s too good, and his talent will carry him if he comes to these pressure games with something far more lasting, with far more staying power than responding to the hellacious firestorm that surrounds his successes and failures. <\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Five takeaways from Jaylen Brown\u2019s Sixers introduction, from his visceral trade reaction to his thoughts on the Celtics<\/a><\/p>\n