The Philadelphia 76ers thought Tyrese Maxey would sell LeBron James on Philly. Turns out, Joel Embiid might be the biggest obstacle to landing him.
NBA reporter Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson dropped a bomb this weekend. LeBron’s camp views the fit with Embiid as a “massive” concern. There is even a belief circulating that James and Embiid should not share the floor together. The Sixers may need to trade Embiid just to make room for a season or two of LeBron.
Read that again. A team is being asked to move a former MVP and franchise cornerstone to accommodate a 41-year-old free agent. That is where we are.
You can understand the concern. Embiid has played 96 games total over the last three seasons. His knee has become a running punchline. When he does suit up, he is no longer the wrecking ball who won MVP in 2023. The Sixers built their entire identity around him for a decade, and now that identity is a question mark wrapped in ice packs.
LeBron does not have time to gamble on availability. He is chasing one more ring. He needs partners who play. Embiid, at his best, is exactly what LeBron wants next to him. At his worst, he is a $111 million injury report.
The money makes this even harder. Embiid is owed roughly $111 million over the next two seasons. He has a $67.4 million player option for 2028-29 that he will almost certainly pick up. No team is trading for that contract without Philadelphia taking back significant salary or picks. Any move to accommodate LeBron would be one of the most complicated trades in NBA history.
And here is the tricky part. The Sixers cannot just casually shop Embiid. His name has surfaced in trade rumors before, but those were reported as exploratory at best. Actually pulling the trigger requires certainty that LeBron is coming. LeBron is not going to commit until he sees the roster. Chicken meet egg.
Meanwhile, the other teams in the LeBron sweepstakes are watching this drama with popcorn. The Cavaliers have their pitch ready. The Heat, Warriors, Timberwolves and Nuggets are all in the mix. Rich Paul has said the Knicks would have been the destination if they had not just won the title.
The Sixers pitch was supposed to be simple. Come play with Tyrese Maxey. Get away from the Lakers circus. Chase one more ring in a Eastern Conference that just watched New York run through it. Instead, the pitch is now: come play with Maxey, ignore Embiid, and trust us to figure it out.
That is not a pitch. That is a plea.
There is mutual respect between LeBron and Embiid. This is not about personal beef. It is about basketball fit and durability, and those concerns are fair. If you are asking whether the Sixers should trade Embiid to land LeBron, the answer might depend on how much you believe in Embiid’s knees. Right now, most people are not betting on them.
The Sixers have to decide who they are. Are they still Embiid’s team with Maxey as the co-star? Or are they pivoting to a LeBron-Maxey duo for one final championship run before entering rebuild mode?
Whatever they choose, they cannot have both. LeBron’s people have made that clear. The next few weeks in Philadelphia are going to be tense.
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.
