So, it’s the Philadelphia 76ers for LeBron James. Weird choice, right?
Of all the teams, of all the places, Philadelphia? It felt like it was going to be someplace more significant, somewhere more meaningful, but it’s the Sixers.
I guess they give him the best chance to win a championship, because that starting lineup — James, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Jaylen Brown and Joel Embiid — it’s a bear. It’s an awfully big bet on the health of Embiid, who is rarely healthy these days, but it’s a bet on a championship, and that is what it’s all about for LeBron at this point.
After all, he’s always been in pursuit of Michael Jordan’s six rings.
“My motivation,” James once told a Nike skills academy camper, according to a 2016 Sports Illustrated profile, “is this ghost I’m chasing. The ghost played in Chicago.”
James currently ranks fourth on our Bill Russell Scale of greatest careers in NBA history, trailing only Russell, Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, because all of them have at least six rings apiece (Russell won 11 titles). The only way James can catch any of them in those rankings is to win more titles (and/or more Finals MVP awards).
James is sitting on four championship rings in 10 Finals appearances — back-to-back titles with the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013, one with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and another with the Los Angeles in 2020 — and this is certainly his shot to win more.
These 76ers are going to be spectacular, so long as everyone stays healthy. Maxey and Edgecombe provide fresh legs, while Brown brings a level of competitiveness every night, and those three can sustain a winner so that James and Embiid can enter the postseason with fresh legs of their own. All of them carry star-level talent.
James is absolutely still a standout, averaging a 21-6-7 last season, when he made the All-Star team (even if mostly on name recognition), before leading the Lakers — largely without Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves — to the second round of the playoffs. It was a testament to his ability at this point. He is still good enough to carry a team on his own to one of eight remaining spots in the postseason, but he can’t win titles alone.
And maybe that was always the case. He could not beat Tim Duncan’s San Antonio Spurs as a 22-year-old on the 2007 Cavaliers. Nor could he beat Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce’s Boston Celtics in 2008 and 2010. He lost to Dwight Howard’s Orlando Magic in 2009. So, he teamed with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, and together they delivered four straight trips to the NBA Finals and the back-to-back championships.
When the Heat were spent, James teamed with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love in Cleveland, reached four more championship series and won one. And when the Cavs were spent, he left for L.A., recruited Anthony Davis and won another one.
That seemed like the end. He was aging into his late 30s, and the Lakers were in decline — until they landed Dončić, breathing new life into James’ career. He must have been convinced, though, that he could not win a title with Dončić and Reaves.
Why else leave L.A. for Philadelphia? It has to be the allure of a ring, and he must have felt the Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat weren’t close enough. I thought he could have won with the Minnesota Timberwolves or Denver Nuggets, too, but those choices would’ve been just as weird. And the ceiling in Philly is higher.
If James does deliver a title, do we really think the same people who attempt to discredit him for jumping from opportunity to opportunity will change their tune now that he’s jumped to Philadelphia? Won’t they just levy the same criticism against him?
He still can’t be the G.O.A.T., because he’s still a ring chaser!
Of course, they’ll say it. I can only imagine what they will say about him if he wins as a third, fourth or even a fifth option. (He was last season’s best third option for a spell.)
But Jordan was always the best player on all six of his championship teams!
You can anticipate zags from the haters at this point. LeBron can’t win even if he does win. But shouldn’t we be able to step back and truly appreciate what it would mean for James to win another championship as a key contributor at the age of 42?
I mean, that would be unbelievable. The 76ers would absolutely need LeBron to be the piece that pulls them all together for the title, because they had a hole at the 4, and if he can be that at this stage, it would be as remarkable as anything he has accomplished in his career. And he has accomplished more than just about anyone.
I think we should count that ring, if it were to happen, on par with any other. It would still be shy of a sixth. We’d still have the same debates. But, man, that could add more ammo to the argument in his favor — that his longevity is what makes him the G.O.A.T.
Because it is hard to imagine anyone accomplishing what James has already done — the scoring record, the 21 All-NBA appearances, the scope of it all — and if he were to win another, it truly would be a perfect ending to an impossibly replicable career.
But I’m not sure it will change his legacy at this point. Which is why it is so curious that he has bet what he has left to write of it on Embiid. There may not be a general manager in the league who would make the same gamble on Embiid’s contract right now, but James took it, because it could lead to a championship — and more debate.
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