LeBron James knew Mike Gansey before he signed with the Philadelphia 76ers in NBA free agency.
The NBA’s all-time leading scorer and the 76ers’ new president of basketball operations go back decades — all the way back to their high school days in Northeast Ohio, when James and the future West Virginia standout initially emerged as regional basketball stars. They later crossed paths in the NBA during James’ two stints with the Cleveland Cavaliers before Gansey was hired by the Sixers to replace Daryl Morey this offseason.
How much that familiarity played into James picking Philadelphia remains a bit of a mystery, but the two are not strangers.
Here’s a look at the longstanding connection in the aftermath of James deciding to join Gansey and the Philadelphia 76ers in NBA free agency:
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LeBron James, Mike Gansey shared Northeast Ohio basketball roots
Gansey, 43, and James, 41, have a history together as teenagers, with their careers as high school basketball stars in Northeast Ohio overlapping for a couple years.
Gansey played for Olmsted Falls High School in the southwest suburbs of Cleveland, about 50 miles from where James went to school at St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron. Gansey finished second in Ohio Mr. Basketball voting for the 2000-01 season as a senior, according to the Akron Beacon-Journal. James, then a sophomore, won the award for the first time and subsequently was named Ohio Mr. Basketball his final two years of high school as well.
While home from playing overseas in Europe during his professional career, Gansey attended a Cavaliers game with his brother and reportedly encountered James while there to speak with other players and training partners he knew.
“We were probably 100 feet from where LeBron and his people were talking,” Gansey’s brother, Steven, said in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Someone said, ‘Ganz is over there.’ And LeBron totally walked the opposite way of where he was going, and went to dap up Mike, to say, ‘What’s up, hey man, how you doing?’ Just a quick hello.
“It just shows you the respect,” Steven Gansey added. “And I was like, ‘Man, Mike, he really walked 100 feet over here, and just dapped you, and walked directly right back. That’s pretty cool.’ And Mike’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah, he’s a great guy,’ and that was it. I’ll always remember that.”
Photo links LeBron James and Mike Gansey as Ohio stars
Gansey’s brother recently posted an old photo featuring James and Gansey in their high school uniforms standing next to one another for a photoshoot with other top basketball players in Northeast Ohio at the time.
How Mike Gansey’s Cavaliers tenure connected him to LeBron James
Before being hired by the 76ers to replace Morey in June 2026, Gansey worked within the Cleveland Cavaliers organization for 15 years. He had spent the past four seasons as the Cavaliers’ general manager and also had a five-season stint as the GM of the Cleveland Charge, the franchise’s D-League affiliate at the time.
It means Gansey was around the organization for the entirety of James’ second run with the Cavaliers beginning in 2011, including the team’s historic 2016 NBA championship.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Before 76ers, LeBron James and Sixers president crossed paths in Ohio
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