This off-season for the Sixers is absolutely blowing my mind.
The Sixers remove Paul George, and add Jaylen Brown and LeBron James!!!
If that's not obviously a completely massive upgrade to you, you clearly don't know ball.
LeBron James is a Philadelphia 76er. This is nuts. As a Sixers fan I must be dreaming.
LeBron has his moments of being emotional, or silly here and there. But he's bare minimum the second greatest player to play this game. He's also a fairly good dude as far as I can tell sitting on my couch, as far as billionaires are concerned.
I've been watching Lebron James since I was in elementary school. Even at this older age, the guy is a beast, and is super productive. Only a handful of my conscious years have gone by where LeBron James hasn't been playing basketball.
He joins an absolutely stacked team on paper. Frankly, that's all a player like LeBron can do at this point in his career, is join the best team he can on paper and hope for the best.
What LeBron lacks in physical ability at this age, he makes up for easily with sheer experience, wisdom, and basketball IQ.
This 76rrs team is well balanced with youth and experience. Tyrese Maxey is an All-Star in his mid twenties entering his prime. Jaylen Brown is going to be just 30 this season, is an All-Star in his prime and has won a ring in Boston. Brown was a dark horse MVP candidate last season. Joel Embiid turns 33 in March. He is injury prone, everyone knows that, but he's still a former MVP pretty recently, is another All-Star, and when healthy last season he was really good. I imagine with LeBron and Brown, Embiid will have more motivation than ever before to play well. Embiid's time in Philadelphia has been a real rollercoaster, but if he can win a ring in Philadelphia, that would do wonders for his legacy. Finally, V.J. Edgecombe is a super athlete who had a Rookie of the Year caliber season last year. Edgecombe will only be 21 this season.
This roster WITHOUT BROWN AND JAMES came back from down 3-1 against the Celtics in the playoffs last season before running into the red-hot, eventual NBA Champion Knicks.
Now enter LeBron James. Anyone who thinks LeBron isn't joining a capable, dangerous team, is just kidding themselves and their opinion can't be taken seriously.
I'm talking a bit confident, a bit big. I don't care. This is amazing. I'm gonna be an emotional fan right now. I also have facts to back up why this is a MORE THAN LOGICAL decision by LeBron.
Also, LeBron is going to be paid $4 million. Even at this age, if people think he's declining or whatever, that's a RIDICULOUS value. Unheard of.
People need to stay healthy of course. But that's obvious.
I'm personally going to be having a humongous life change in the coming weeks. But by the time the first phase of that is done, it will be just approaching basketball season.
The Sixers are going to be the team to watch, and the team to beat. Too cool!!!
The Sixers also made under the radar signings by picking up Dean Wade and Anfernee Simons. The Sixers also drafted Labaron Philon Jr. #22 overall in the NBA Draft. Many people believe that this was an excellent value draft selection. Some projected Philon could have been selected a high as the top ten. The Sixers lost some depth after losing Jared McCain last season and now Quentin Grimes, hopefully Philon Jr. can help replace that guard depth a bit.
LeBron James hopefully creates a beautiful domino effect on this team. I'm truly so happy for Philadelphia.
LeBron is bigger than basketball at this point, the guy is one of the most famous people to ever live, period. I called my son instantly about this news, I was glad to be the first person to tell him.
I know I'm getting WAY ahead of myself here but....It would be amazing if somehow LeBron helps the Sixers win two straight titles. That would put him at 6 rings and then the MJ-LeBron debates would be REALLY insane. LeBron is on a two year deal, his second year being a player option.
It's pretty amazing LeBron is on this team on such a cheap deal. The guy is basically a money printer simply by existing at this point. He doesn't need some insane deal I guess.
Sure, LeBron isn't going back to Cleveland. I won't speak for Cleveland fans, but I think his legacy is pretty secured there. Philadelphia is as extremely east as it gets in the state of Pennsylvania, but still, Ohio isn't ridiculously far away. I only bring this up because well, if LeBron were to bring a ring to Philadelphia, his impact on the Appalachian/Mid-Atlantic/Rust Belt region of America will be pretty substantial. Toss in southern New Jersey while you're at it. I mean, LeBron has won championships in Florida and California but, those two states are extremely different.
Ohio and Pennsylvania, even south Jersey are gritty, cold states right next to each other. As a Pennsylvanian I think it's worth noting.
I'm so excited man. This is a pretty special day for the city of Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania.
The online content is going to be endless.
Maybe it's a loser mentality but, no matter what happens, these are exciting times! Hope is a beautiful thing.
