CAMDEN, N.J. — LeBron James knows championship-caliber chemistry won’t develop overnight for the Philadelphia 76ers with their recently renovated star-studded roster.
It will take time. Say, like the 90 seconds it takes for a bowl of oatmeal to warm up in the microwave.
“Everyone wants instant oatmeal,” James said Monday, Sept. 28 at 76ers media day. “You just put the oatmeal in the bowl, you put water in it, throw it in the microwave, and in a minute and a half, you’ve got something to eat. You’re ready to go.
“If you want to do something special, it takes time.”
That’s the task at hand for James as he enters a league-record 24th NBA season, and his first in Philadelphia: bring a championship blueprint to to the 76ers and help lead the franchise to a title.
LeBron James on 76ers’ title goals: ‘I didn’t leave my family to lose in second round’
“I’ve seen everything that this league has to offer on and off the floor,” James said. “… Looking forward to that challenge.”
James was the centerpiece of Philadelphia’s offseason, signing a two-year, $8 million contract after a competitive free-agent sweepstakes. The 76ers’ newest title push window, however, began when new president of basketball operations Mike Gansey traded Paul George to the Boston Celtics for Jaylen Brown, one of the NBA’s top two-way stars.
Brown and James join Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey – who played a major role in James’ landing in Philadelphia – and VJ Edgecombe to form Philadelphia’s new “Big Five.”
‘Be comfortable with being uncomfortable’
The 76ers are looking to break through after another disappointing playoff exit, as a second-round sweep by the New York Knicks extended the franchise’s Eastern Conference finals drought to 25 seasons. With training camp beginning Tuesday and the season opener against the Knicks 21 days away, James believes chemistry can be expedited through time spent together before practice, in film sessions and during road trips.
But it’s also more involved than that.
James said it starts with “falling in love with doing things that’s uncomfortable.”
“For us to be great, we have to do things that are just not comfortable. We have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. That is the best way to expedite being great,” James said. “… And if we can do that, we can be a great team.
“If we don’t do that, then we’ll be like, “Oh man, that was a great team on paper and we had a lot of great talent and we also sat around.” I don’t want to do that. I don’t need my family to lose in the second round. I know that for sure. Work needs to be done, and I’m ready to get to work.”
Collective sacrifice will also be needed, which James said isn’t a negative, though the word could come off with a negative connotation. That sacrifice doesn’t necessarily mean changing roles because of the roster’s overhaul. Instead, it means embracing the little things that “don’t show up in the box scores.”
RETIREMENT? Does LeBron James see 76ers as final stop? NBA star weighs in on retirement
“With the group of guys we have, no one mentioned that everyone’s role will probably be different. And that’s for the greater good,” James said. “… It’s not a negative when people say, ‘Okay, you have to make a sacrifice or your role may change.’
“We’re trying to do something special – which I believe we are – then that’s a positive. So many guys that’ve been in our league over the course of my career have never made a sacrifice in their career, and they average 20 points and 22 points a game. (But) they’ve had one or two postseason appearances and zero postseason wins. If that’s the way you want your career to be, then that’s fine. Everyone has different goals, but I don’t think anybody in the locker room has that feeling and wants their career to be like that, or we wouldn’t be there.”
Brown agrees with James’ message.
“Anytime you’re going for something great, something high-level, you’re going to take a level of sacrifice,” Brown said.
‘We got the right mix’
James averaged 20.9 points per game last season for the Los Angeles Lakers in 60 games. He’s expected to play power forward in the 76ers’ projected lineup, but he said he’s willing to do “whatever the team needs” to help Philadelphia win.
“I think the luxury of my game is that I can do everything,” James said. “Literally, I can do everything.”
Maxey said he’s “pretty comfortable playing in any type of situation” at this point in his career but believes that the 76ers roster allows him “to get out and transition a little bit more.” The 6-foot-2 guard averaged 28.3 points and 6.6 assists per game last season while shooting 46.2% from the field.
Brown, who believes there’s a lot of “firepower offensively” on the roster, will be tasked with being a “defensive stopper,” something Maxey and Embiid both spoke to on what excited them about the addition of Brown after facing him and the Boston Celtics all those years in the Atlantic Division.
“I think anchoring defense is important for all of us. I think that should be what we should hang our hats on as a team,” Brown said. “… We all got to hold each other accountable on defense.”
There are bound to be growing pains as the 76ers’ new-look “Big Five” develops chemistry, and there’s no guarantee a roster loaded with this much star power will ultimately work. Embiid has seen the 76ers pursue the star-stacking approach before, from adding Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris to later acquiring James Harden, while having Ben Simmons as a piece of “The Process” during that era.
This time around, though, the seven-time All-Star and former NBA MVP, who is “feeling pretty good” after dealing with injuries the last few seasons, believes the Sixers have the right mix of talent on the roster to get the wins needed.
“I wouldn’t say it didn’t work out (before),” Embiid said. “We didn’t win. It’s hard to win when you get a group of guys together for one year, two years, maybe. That’s why I’m extremely excited about this team because we got the right mix of veteran leadership and the younger guys and everybody being on the same page. We might have some ups and downs, but we want to get there.
“You look at the teams who have won (recently) … They went through a couple years (of) figuring that (mix) out, they finally got there, and they were able to do it. … I haven’t done it. … You need that consistency. You need to get guys on the same page. But I feel like this year we have that.”
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Can 76ers stars deliver a title? LeBron James says it’s no ‘instant oatmeal’
Read the full article here