{"id":957032,"date":"2026-07-24T21:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/957032\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T21:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:42:16","slug":"lebron-james-picks-his-final-challenge-and-philadelphia-could-reap-the-rewards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/957032\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James picks his final challenge, and Philadelphia could reap the rewards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those NBA schedule-makers<\/a> who have been stuck in limbo can go ahead and hit overdrive now. LeBron James might have made their work pretty simple.<\/p>\n

Opening night, go ahead and expect Philadelphia at New York.<\/p>\n

Christmas Day, go ahead and expect Philadelphia on the schedule.<\/p>\n

National television games, go ahead and give Philadelphia a ton of those, too.<\/p>\n

The 76ers got perhaps the biggest bargain in sports history on Friday, when James \u2014 the NBA\u2019s all-time scoring king \u2014 announced he would be finishing his career in Philadelphia.<\/a> It is mindboggling to consider that LeBron James (at about $3.9 million) is going to cost the 76ers roughly as much as rookie Labaron Philon (at about $3.6 million) will this coming season, which simultaneously makes no sense and perfect sense.<\/p>\n

James, as always, knows exactly what he\u2019s doing. It\u2019s one last chance to do something that nobody else has done. He could win a championship with a fourth different franchise, which would be an NBA first. It might be the only thing left to inspire him.<\/p>\n

All the other records that were once within his reach are now in his hands. His scoring record probably isn\u2019t going to get caught. His longevity record \u2014 playing 24 or 25 years \u2014 probably isn\u2019t going to get caught. He\u2019s not going to catch Bill Russell for the most championships, though one more would give him five and tie Kobe Bryant. But winning four in four different cities, that would be another way for James to stand alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still want to sacrifice,\u201d James wrote on Friday when he let the world know his decision to join the 76ers. \u201cI still want to work. I still want to grind. I still want to compete, to win and to have a chance at the feeling of winning another championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

James had other good options<\/p>\n

It could have been Cleveland. It could have been Miami. Golden State appeared to be in the mix as well, but realistically the decision for James seemed to be between going home to the Cavaliers, going back to the Heat or writing one last chapter on a clean sheet of paper with the 76ers.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia already had one of the steals of the summer when it acquired Jaylen Brown in a trade with the Boston Celtics. It has an elite guard in Tyrese Maxey, and Joel Embiid \u2014 when healthy \u2014 is almost unstoppable. It has a rising star in VJ Edgecombe, and a coach in Nick Nurse (who turned 59 on Friday, so we can assume his birthday wish has already come true) who already has a championship ring on his finger from his stint in Toronto.<\/p>\n

In other words, it more than meets James\u2019 criteria. On paper, if everything went right even before Friday\u2019s news, the 76ers were already primed to be a contender. Now, with James, anything less than contention would be utter failure. And while some will say he\u2019s ring-chasing, it\u2019s hard for that argument to hold up considering that Philadelphia hasn\u2019t won a title since 1983.<\/p>\n

Regardless, this task for James won\u2019t be easy. The Eastern Conference is absolutely loaded.<\/p>\n

The NBA champion Knicks play 100 miles away from Philly, and that rivalry will somehow get even hotter now. If the 76ers go to New York for opening night, when the Knicks get their first championship rings in 53 years, those crazy prices for games at Madison Square Garden for the NBA Finals might seem like pocket change.<\/p>\n

And the East is much more than just the Knicks. Detroit won 60 games last season. Toronto \u2014 maybe \u2014 will be bringing Kawhi Leonard back. Cleveland will be in the mix. Miami added Giannis Antetokounmpo; the Heat were waiting to see what James would decide and now will look to add more shooting and backcourt help. And if this past season was any indication, even though trading Brown was puzzling to some, it would be foolish to count Boston out of anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my last decision,\u201d James wrote. \u201cI\u2019m not going for money. I\u2019m not going for family. What am I really playing for at this point?\u201d<\/p>\n

A serious challenge awaits<\/p>\n

There will be growing pains.<\/p>\n

Miami started 9-8 in James\u2019 first season with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. Philadelphia is starting over in many ways; it\u2019s not as simple as it sounds to just plug Brown and James into the starting lineup for Paul George and Kelly Oubre Jr. Brown, James, Embiid and Maxey will have to figure it out, and it will take time. There will be losses. Trust the process, as they say in Philadelphia. It will be a process.<\/p>\n

But if they figure it out … <\/p>\n

James could play quarterback and just spread the ball around all day if he wants. He can still fill a stat sheet like almost nobody else. He and Embiid won Olympic gold together. Maxey is just coming into his own. Brown is going to have a chip on his shoulder the size of the Liberty Bell to prove the naysayers from Boston wrong. If this works, it\u2019s going to be spectacular. If it doesn\u2019t, it\u2019ll be a spectacular flameout. There is no in-between.<\/p>\n

So, now the NBA schedule can be finished. It was the question \u2014 where will LeBron go? \u2014 that the whole league was asking, and with all respect to Allen Iverson\u2019s nickname, Philly was The Answer. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Those NBA schedule-makers who have been stuck in limbo can go ahead and hit overdrive now. LeBron James…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":957033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[61407,5229,3125,95156,3368,14562,36688,3370,219594,385005,3363,37352,1260,6326,3122,43695,1448,5217,3525,2830,1311,3123,62,36689,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,41713],"class_list":["post-957032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-allen-iverson","tag-america","tag-boston-celtics","tag-chris-bosh","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-joel-embiid","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-kelly-oubre","tag-labaron-philon","tag-lebron-james","tag-national-basketball-association","tag-nba","tag-nba-basketball","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-nick-nurse","tag-pa","tag-pa-state-wire","tag-paul-george","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-sports","tag-tyrese-maxey","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vj-edgecombe"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/957033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}