LeBron James Joins the Philadelphia 76ers: What's the Impact?

Well, the storyline this week clearly has been LeBron James going to Philadelphia. And I can't wait to see what happens in the NBA this year. LeBron made the decision to join the 76ers at 1 a.m. in the morning, per Rich Paul from Clutch Sports. Came down between Cleveland, Miami, and Philadelphia. And like JY, who predicted it three weeks ago, it turned out to be the city of brotherly love. I will tell you one thing, having worked there for the last six years and covering the Eagles and covering sports there in Philadelphia, this is gonna be either statue building or this is going to be tearing down. There is no gray area with that fan base. They revere you or they revile you. And if you do not produce, you do not show up, they will turn on you faster than a New York minute. I will tell you flat out, that's how that fan base acts. And rightfully so, I think they hold you accountable. The Philadelphia fan base is one of my favorite fan bases I've ever talked to sportsmen. I gotta tell you, I enjoy it very much because they're not gonna sit around and there's no gray area. You've got Nick Sirianni that is on the hot seat. You've got Jalen Hurts. People are saying this, if Jalen Hurts doesn't perform this year, the Philadelphia Eagles are gonna move off of a quarterback who's 50 and 18, won two NFC championships, a Super Bowl MVP, and they're saying this, if he doesn't deliver and he doesn't evolve with this new offense that they're implementing with Sean Mannion, they're gonna go in a different direction. The same thing with the head football coach. If you look at any of the list of any of the prognosticators, I'm talking about the upcoming season, the one name that shows up that's on the hot seat is Nick Sirianni. And this is because of the expectations that they have in that city. There is no doubt about it, Bryce Harper. You see the heat that he's under. LeBron James will be facing the same heat, him going into Philadelphia. Look, that's a heck of a lineup there. Maxie, Edgecombe, Jalen Brown, LeBron James, and of course, the road cone, as I call him, Joel Embiid. Joel Embiid has gotta play north of 40 ballgames. This guy is average. Get this, in his time, he has averaged 45 games over his nine years as a player for the 76ers. Dude, you gotta play north of that. Former MVP a couple years back, he's gotta play to that form again. Everyone remembers the rim out. You know, the Kawhi Leonard, Toronto Raptors, that opening round series. The winner of that series, in my opinion, would have gone on to win the NBA championship because the Raptors ended up going on and winning an NBA championship. Hey, look, people say this all the time about Embiid. Arguably one of the greatest players in 76er history. Well, Moses Malone would have something else to say about that. That 83 team will go down as one of the greatest NBA teams in the history of sports, not just in the history of the NBA. Four, four, four, and four. Everyone remembers Moses with his proclamation. And that team was playing in the era of Bird and also Magic Johnson. So many great teams were playing in that era. And Dr. J on that team, this could go down as arguably one of the best teams and one of the greatest moves in Philadelphia sports history. Look, this is almost the equivalent of Tom Brady going to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and trying to get another championship. Remember, Brady went down to Tampa Bay and they had a loaded roster. Brady was looking for the right coach. He was looking for the right roster. And he landed in Tampa with Mike Evans and with Bruce Aarons. That's kind of what LeBron has done here. Look at what you have. You have Bob Myers running the whole shop. There's old Daryl Morey in there who never accomplished anything. His biggest accomplishment was when can I sign James Harden? What did that ever get him in the end? Nothing. Now you have Bob Myers constructing a basketball team that's gonna give LeBron James an opportunity to win a championship in one of the toughest sports cities in all of America. And that is the city of brotherly love. What an absolute great opportunity. And by the way, you gotta hand it to LeBron here. He's not chasing any kind of records here. He's not chasing money. He's playing for the league minimum. Four years, eight million bucks. Or excuse me, two years, eight million dollars. This guy's playing for four million a year. So this is not about going and getting max contracts any longer. This is going and trying to maximize his last and final opportunities to make the argument that he's the greatest player in the history of the NBA. What a statement by LeBron. I know some people aren't for this. Some people don't like this move. I think this is the first move in LeBron's career that's really a basketball move. And not just a LeBron brand move. This is about winning here. This is about putting a championship and another ring on your finger and making the GOAT argument even tougher. Four championships, four cities, five titles total. I don't know. The conversation's gonna get heated up if he delivers again.