LeBron James Took $8 Million to Join the 76ers and Says He Didn’t Do It to Lose in Round Two
The most decorated player of his generation signed for the veteran minimum. LeBron James is a Philadelphia 76er on a two-year, $8 million contract with a player option, announced on his own account in July in a post he called his “last decision.”
He is 41 years old and entering season 24. He is also not treating this as a retirement tour.
He Set the Bar at Media Day
Asked about expectations, James went past the usual talk about process and chemistry.
“We have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable,” he said. “If we don’t do that, then we’ll be like, ‘It was a great team on paper and we lost in the second round.’ I don’t wanna do that. I didn’t leave my family to lose in the 2nd round, I know that.”
That line is doing a lot of work. Philadelphia lost in the second round last season. James uprooted his life in Los Angeles after eight years to join a team whose ceiling has been exactly the thing he just said he will not accept.
On his own podcast in late September he laid out how he wants the locker room to handle the circus that follows him. “We’ve got to have a bunker mentality,” he said. “The noise that comes with me, good, bad, indifferent. Everything, it’s a little different. Is it warranted? I don’t even know.” His prescription: “Nothing matters outside what we have.”
Maxey Did the Recruiting
Tyrese Maxey has been open about how this happened, and his version is funnier than the official one.
“I don’t blow up no man’s phone,” Maxey said. “Now, did I call? For sure.” His pitch was straightforward: “Yo, you’re always welcome to come to Philly” and “Yo, pull up, I think we got a good chance. I feel like you can help us.”
How many times? “I probably talked to him at least three times, three or four times.”
James also spoke with Joel Embiid and Jaylen Brown before signing. One detail from camp captures the whole thing: rookie VJ Edgecombe started the team group chat but had to ask Maxey to add LeBron’s number.
He Nearly Signed Somewhere Else
The most surprising revelation from media day: James said he had once envisioned signing with the Knicks, then reconsidered after New York won the 2026 title. He was unwilling to join the defending champion.
Whatever you think of the reasoning, it is consistent with a player who has spent 23 years caring about how the ring was won.
The Roster Is Loaded and Unproven Together
Philadelphia acquired Jaylen Brown from Boston in early July for Paul George and a package of picks. Brown averaged 28.7 points last season and arrived with a chip: “Nobody has won more combined regular-season and playoff games since I entered the league 10 years ago.”
So the lineup under Nick Nurse now runs through Embiid, Maxey, Brown, Edgecombe and James. Anfernee Simons and Dean Wade came in as well.
Camp opened September 29 in Camden with Embiid a full participant and no restrictions. Nurse said he looked great. He also confirmed workload management plans for both Embiid and James across the preseason and back-to-backs, which is the sentence that should worry Philadelphia fans most.
Nurse indicated Thursday that he expects James to operate largely as the de facto point guard, which at 41 is a reasonable way to use him.
The Real Question
James averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists in 60 games for the Lakers last season and made his 22nd All-Star team. That is still a very good player. It is not a player who can carry a team through four playoff rounds.
Philadelphia does not need him to. It needs Embiid healthy in May, which has been the franchise’s unanswered question for a decade, and it needs Brown and Maxey to coexist.
James took $8 million and gave up the chance to finish in Los Angeles to find out. His own standard is a conference finals at minimum. He will be judged by it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
