LeBron James shocks the NBA world by announcing he will be signing with the Philadelphia 76ers.
On July 4th, 2018, the NBA world was awaiting LeBron James’ decision. It was widely speculated within the media that LeBron’s tenure in Cleveland was most likely over.
The writing was on the wall. Everyone witnessed Cleveland’s sweep at the hands of Golden State. The series wasn’t even close. Golden State’s average margin of victory was 23.5 points. In the fourth quarter of game four, the crowd was chanting “Laaaa-kers! Laaaa-kers!” while LeBron, the reigning league MVP, was shooting free throws. It was reminiscent of Boston’s “New York Knicks!” chant when LeBron was defeated by the Celtics many years ago.
Philadelphia 76ers
The moment game four ended, the leaks began. The Lakers rumors were as relentless as a summer thunderstorm. Lonzo Ball looked like the next great Lakers point guard. He won rookie of the year with 95 percent of the first place votes (with 4 percent and 1 percent going to Ben Simmons and Dennis Smith, respectively). It was rumored the Lakers were about to assemble a big three of LeBron James, Paul George, and Lonzo Ball.
George’s season with the Thunder was a success. Oklahoma City ended up with the number three seed, and upset the Houston Rockets in the second round. They lost in four games to Golden State, which demonstrated just how far the Thunder really were to being able to triumph over the best team of all time. Many thought there was no way George would stay in Oklahoma. Why would he? He was supposed to team up with LeBron James in Los Angeles and challenge the Warriors. This narrative was the consensus amongst most people in NBA circles. However, with one tweet, Adrian Wojnarowski destroyed this belief.
On July 4th, at exactly 12:30 pm, Adrian Wojnarowski dropped a bombshell story. “Sources: The Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to send point guard Kyrie Irving to Philadelphia in exchange for Markelle Fultz and Jerryd Bayless” The tweet exploded, and led to a firestorm of opinions and speculations on the trade. Was LeBron joining Philadelphia? No way, that would never happen. Was LeBron unhappy with Irving, the dazzling point guard that won Cleveland their first professional sports championship in ages? Was this part of a three team trade, where Fultz would be sent to a third team and a different all star back to Cleveland? It was impossible to know.
The Sixers won 35 games the previous year, which was good enough to sneak into the playoffs. They were swept in the first round by Boston. Joel Embiid was great. Markelle Fultz showed promise, but was still extremely young and had a lot of room for growth. Ben Simmons had a very good rookie year, but questions about his jump shot still plagued him. There was no possible way Philadelphia was in consideration for LeBron. It seemed like nothing more than a fantasy for Sixers fans.
Must Read: 5 reasons Markelle Fultz will be better than Lonzo Ball
And then it happened.
Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted, “LeBron James has agreed to terms with the Philadelphia 76ers, league sources tell ESPN.” Wojnarowski continued in a string of tweets. “James has looked at Philadelphia for a while. However, the one thing that was holding him back from committing was the point guard position. James views Fultz in a positive light. But, James, who is now 33 years of age, told Philadelphia unless they traded for Kyrie Irving he was not interested in signing with them.”
Phiadelphia traded Markelle Fultz to attract LeBron James to the Sixers.
Joel Embiid sent out a “Trust the Process” tweet, while also gloating about how annoyed he was that no one believed in his abilities to recruit LeBron. “I told you all I would get LeBron to sign here! I wasn’t kidding!” he emphatically tweeted.
The addition of Kyrie Irving was unequivocally the biggest reason why LeBron James agreed to sign with the Sixers. However, one must wonder what the other reasons were. Was it Joel Embiid? Was it LeBron’s relationship with Ben Simmons that won him over? Certainly the cap situation in the NBA played a substantial role in all of this. The Sixers had max cap space in a league where max cap space was scarce .
Next: LeBron-to-Philly is improbable but possible
The pedantic reasons as to why LeBron James chose Philadelphia wasn’t of much concern to Sixers fans at that moment. They were busy celebrating the fact that the best player of this generation signed with Philadelphia. And hopefully, that player, along with help from Embiid, Simmons, Irving, and anyone else who decided to sign with Philadelphia would help bring the city their first NBA championship since 1983.
Reminder: This is satire and is solely a description of what could happen if LeBron James chooses to sign with the 76ers.