Camden, New Jersey — A little after noon on a dreary Monday morning, kids wearing school uniforms spilled onto the playground in downtown Camden.
It was recess at LEAP Academy, and the kids milled about the macadam or waited their turn on the swings, contentedly unaware that, just a few blocks away, the King had just arrived to claim his new kingdom.
At around 11:15 a.m. ET, LeBron James followed a phalanx of front office and public relations staff into a second-floor room, sat down behind a table draped in blue cloth and promptly began clearing the table. He took a water bottle meant for his sipping and plopped it on the floor, yanked a microphone off its stand and finally glanced at a placard with his name.
“You guys know who I am, right?” he said, before putting the name card on the floor, too.
This, of course, is why James is here, wearing the red, white and blue of the Philadelphia 76ers: To rearrange things. To bring structure and order to a franchise that has been mired in mediocrity.
And, if all goes as he plans, to upend the NBA pecking order.
“I didn’t leave my family,” he said of his relocation to Philly while his family stays encamped out west, “to lose in the second round.”
Had the Liberty Bell still been able, it might have peeled off in glee at that moment.
In his first official duty as a 76er, James hit all the proper notes. He spoke graciously for nearly 20 minutes, waxing thoughtfully about the difficulty of juggling parenthood with superstardom, and sharing honestly his reasoning behind joining the Sixers. He invoked the Palestra (he played there as a high schooler) and paid proper homage to the demanding fan base (“We respect you, but we hate you. I love that,” he said).
But it is those 11 words that Philly fans, who are at 25 years and counting without so much as a berth in the Eastern Conference Finals, will devour. The question, of course, is whether they will be on James’ statue or carved into his gravestone.
Declarations here – of independence and otherwise – have a way of hanging around. The same people who embraced Moses Malone’s prediction of “Fo Fo Fo,” about the Sixers’ 1983 NBA title run (it wound up Fo, Fi, Fo) also remember that, 31 years ago, Ricky Watters replied, “For who? For what?” when asked why he didn’t lay out for a throw from quarterback Randall Cunningham.
“They know sports. They know ball,” James said of his new fan base. “But if you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do, they’re going to let you hear it. They’re going to hold you accountable.”
The worry about what will come, though, is for another day. For once, the September Sixers offered excitement about what could be.
Ordinarily the Sixers’ media day would have fallen largely on deaf ears, a speed bump on a calendar filled with far more important dates. Nine hours after the Sixers commenced their interviews, the undefeated Eagles would play the Bears on “Monday Night Football.” On Tuesday, when training camp officially begins in Camden, the Phillies begin their quest for “Red October,” after belatedly securing a wildcard slot in the eleventh hour.
But this Saturday, the Sixers will play their Blue x White scrimmage in the downtown arena for the first time, to allow for more fans, and the get-in price for the home opener is already pushing toward $300. Actual media day, usually reserved for a few ink-stained regulars, was near standing-room only, with one team official bemoaning a Phoebe Bridgers concert that prevented the team from moving the event to the team’s home arena in Philadelphia.
This is what hope looks like, what it feels like when a franchise actually has a plan and not just a process. General manager Mike Gansey pulled off the coups of the offseason, not just signing James but securing Jaylen Brown in a trade with the Celtics that was as brazen as it was stealthy.
“If it had leaked,” executive vice president for basketball operations Jameer Nelson told CNN Sports. “I’m not sure it happens. That’s just my opinion.”
Brown’s arrival started the ball rolling. Tyrese Maxey sealed the deal. The precocious 25-year-old became a workout pal with James post-Covid 19 pandemic, the two bonding on their insatiable desire to do the work. In the offseasons since the pandemic, they became regular partners, both hitting 6 a.m. workouts together. Clearly impressed with Maxey’s dedication and pluck, James asked him for an honest evaluation of the Sixers.
Still – even though Philly was on James’ agent’s famed whiteboard of destinations – it seemed like a long shot even to those involved.
VJ Edgecombe was getting a pedicure when he heard about his new teammate and Nelson was at an AirBnB in Huntington Beach, California, for his daughter’s softball tournament when the news became official. Unable to tell his family, Nelson played dumb until Jayce started screaming, “LeBron is coming to Philly!”
“Oh really?” Nelson said.
Once the deal was done, Edgecombe set about creating a new team text chain.
“But I don’t have LeBron’s number,” he said with a grin. “And even I did, I wasn’t adding him to it. I made Tyrese do that.”
Even those on the text chain admit they’re still a little starry eyed. James officially became a Sixer on July 27, but this is his first time in Philly (that he arrived on the heels of a Nor’easter reminded him of what he’s in for with the East Coast weather).
“I thought I was over it,” Jabari Walker said. “But then it was like, ‘Wait. He’s in the locker room now.’”
On Tuesday, James will be on the practice court. That is, frankly, where he plans to do his best work. He can still play – “the luxury of my game is I can do everything,” he quipped. “Literally I can do everything” – but he thrives in creating an incubator for success. He threw shade at unnamed players who averaged big numbers in their careers, but secured no postseason success, and pooh-poohed an “instant oatmeal” society that wants everything handed out easily.
James loves, at the risk of using a word that will make Philly fans flinch, “the process,” but his comes with four championship rings on his fingers.
“You have to fall in love with doing things that are uncomfortable,” he said. “And if we can do that, we can be a great team. If we don’t do that, then we’ll be like, ‘Oh man. That was a great team on paper and we had a lot of great talent, and we lost in the second round.’”
