LeBron James is officially a Philadelphia athlete. Not only because he signed with the Sixers, but he has become part of the local landscape with a new mural, one of the city’s most iconic traditions.
The ripple effect of LeBron’s arrival has led to a viral work of art, but who is the artist behind the work?
Meet Bill Strobel
Working in his studio, listening to a podcast that had nothing to do with sports, Bill Strobel’s day was about to take a significant turn thanks to some news from his girlfriend and fellow artist Jeannie Zimmerman.
“She said, ‘Hey, we got LeBron.’ I think she heard it from one of her girlfriends. And I’m just like, ‘This is how I’m going to get this news? Your girlfriend told you, and now we have LeBron?'”
Strobel could only liken this arrival of a legendary basketball figure to one other case in Sixers history: Julius Erving.
“I remember when Doc came here from the Nets. When you have someone like LeBron, who was basically, at one point, the greatest player in the world — and then we can debate on who’s going to be the greatest moving forward — but it’s the only thing I can compare that to, because at the time, Dr. J was a fictional character. He was a superhero.
“The shock of it, I thought we were maybe third on that list of teams that he might come to.”
Not long after the news swept Philadelphia, Bill received a message from a familiar source asking, “Yo, you want to paint LeBron?”
That message came from restaurateur Albert Zheng, who had previously commissioned a mural by Strobel on an exterior wall on Jackson Street in South Philadelphia near the corner at S. Broad Street.
After completing the mural, which featured several notable Eagles, including Jalen Hurts, Brandon Graham, Jason Kelce, Fletcher Cox, and Lane Johnson, in November of 2023, Zheng expressed a desire for another piece in the future, and quickly knew the arrival of LeBron James was an event worth immortalizing, approaching Strobel with a vision for the work.
Outside Javelin in Fairmount stands a mural of LeBron James wearing an Allen Iverson-era black Sixers jersey. Within hours of its completion, images spread across social media, turning the artwork into one of the city’s first viral tributes to the NBA superstar.
The mural may have appeared overnight to those who first saw it on social media, but Strobel estimates he spent about 16 hours painting it over two days.
Confident he could have completed the project in a day if needed, Strobel prioritized the finished product and his own health, splitting the project over two days.
“I actually was out there this morning trying to tighten it up,” Strobel said Tuesday. “It’s probably something that takes around 16 hours, depending on the surface. It’s a little difficult because it’s brick and cinder block.”
Convenient for Strobel, the location allows him to continue refining the mural.
“I can always walk over there and tidy things up as I want. So this could be a thing that goes on forever.”
Celebrating athletes through art
Philadelphia has a rich history in both art and sports and has long celebrated its athletes through murals, turning walls across the city into tributes to championships, icons and unforgettable moments. Strobel has spent years contributing to that tradition.
“It’s a blast,” Strobel said. “I’ve been lucky enough to work with the Eagles and the Flyers and the Union and have great relationships with them, and to think that I would actually be on somebody’s short list of people to call when my favorite team wanted something done is kind of a blast.
“I’ve been pretty much an artist my whole life, and I appreciate that culture, the fine art culture, the whole Parkway art situation that I think is probably second to none, anywhere,” he added. “I put some paint on a brush and put it on the wall, and I get to do that, and legally now, so that’s kind of cool.”
As much as Strobel has enjoyed the recognition, sports fandom and art have surrounded his life, making these projects feel natural more than anything.
“I don’t really get struck by this stuff because I’ve been doing it for a long time. But it almost feels right,” Strobel said. “It feels like I may have earned it a little bit.”
Strobel has used his platform to extend positive energy throughout the city. Win or lose, his work celebrates the hard work and sacrifice the city’s athletes have made.
Not far from the LeBron mural stands a large mural of Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts at the intersection of Brown and Corinthian streets. The work was displayed before the Eagles fell to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII. Despite the loss, Strobel remembered the performance of Hurts, who notably outplayed opposing quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and felt a tremendous amount of thankfulness, which sparked an idea in his mind.
“I went out there and I put sidewalk chalk out, and I went on social media. I said, ‘Hey, anybody wants to come down here and thank Jalen for a great season and a great ride.’ Because you know he outplayed Mahomes, so I was like, ‘Just come out here and write on this football and say thank you. And the response was ridiculous… the whole wall’s full of people that came and said thank you and we love you.”
The chalk was just temporary, but the act demonstrated the true passion of Philly sports fans, who are often vilified nationally, in what Strobel referred to as a lazy narrative, one that he no longer cares to even acknowledge — especially as there are far more pressing matters at hand, like a potential playoff run for the Sixers.
Can this mural spark a run?
Like many Sixers fans, Strobel believes LeBron’s arrival has transformed expectations for the franchise.
“It just changes everything,” Strobel said. “If I’m thinking of what before Morey, [before] they got rid of him, it didn’t look so great, and now all of a sudden, you get Jaylen Brown and then LeBron comes here, this is a completely different team, and it’s like an All-Star team.”
The Sixers are now widely considered a top-five favorite to win the NBA Finals next season. There’s still much to work out on the court, but the excitement is palpable and the weight of expectation is already being felt.
“I do think that a championship run is possible. I will be disappointed if they don’t get further than they’ve gotten in the past 10 years. I’d like to see if Joel can stay healthy now and want to be out there. But I think it’s not unreasonable to think that they could go to the finals.”
The arrival of LeBron James sparked a new hope in Philadelphia, and Strobel’s mural is the first of potentially many to come that has captured the excitement of an entire city.
With the project mostly complete, Strobel is currently entrenched in a project that will last through the month, but has already received interest for future projects, sports-related and otherwise, so the next viral Philly sports mural may not be too far away.
“We’re lucky enough that people trust us to do work for them, and being in the mural capital of the world, it’s hard to be a big fish, but to be a fish at all is still a pretty big deal.”
MORE: LeBron James chose Philadelphia to chase history, not comfort
Keywords
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Philadelphia artists