LeBron James is heading back to the Eastern Conference. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer announced Friday that he will sign with the Philadelphia 76ers, a move that immediately reshapes the conference and sets off a familiar question: is this the most talent James has ever been surrounded by?
The 76ers already boast Joel Embiid, the 2023 MVP and two-time scoring champion who remains one of the most dominant centers in the league when healthy. Tyrese Maxey has evolved into a full-fledged superstar, averaging nearly 30 points per game while earning multiple All-Star and All-NBA selections. The roster also includes Jaylen Brown, the 2024 Finals MVP and a multi-time All-Star who was the 1B option on Boston’s title run, and VJ Edgecombe, the 76ers’ first-round draft pick. Together, that collection of credentials — former MVP, Finals MVP, multiple current All-Stars, and a lottery rookie — has fans comparing the roster to every superteam James has ever anchored.
The comparison runs deep. In Miami, James paired with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh for four consecutive Finals appearances and two championships. In Cleveland, he had Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, winning the 2016 title after a 3-1 comeback against the 73-win Warriors. In Los Angeles, Anthony Davis served as the co-anchor for the 2020 bubble championship. Each of those teams featured elite talent, but none stacked four current or recent All-NBA-caliber players alongside James the way this Philadelphia roster does on paper.
On paper. That phrase is doing a lot of heavy lifting, and anybody who’s spent time around a locker room knows it.
Embiid has played more than 70 games in a regular season exactly once in his career. Brown has dealt with recurring knee issues. James himself is entering his age-41 season with 22 years of NBA mileage on the tires. You can stack all the All-Star selections you want on a depth chart — the film doesn’t lie, and neither do medical reports. The 2021 Brooklyn Nets taught the league that lesson when Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden produced exactly zero championships together.
What separates this Philadelphia experiment from James’s previous superteams is the depth of the top end. In Miami, Wade was already past his scoring prime by the second title. In Cleveland, Love had declined from his Minnesota prime into a third-option role. Here, Embiid is still in his prime years when upright, Maxey is ascending, and Brown is coming off a Finals MVP. If the pieces fit — and that’s a ranch-sized if — the ceiling is higher than anything James has worked with before.
The 76ers are now the team to beat in the East, at least in August, when nobody’s keeping score. The games start in October, and that’s when we find out whether this roster is a juggernaut or just a very expensive collection of jerseys that don’t share the ball.
Sources:
- NBA.com — “Last decision: LeBron to sign with 76ers”
- theScore — “76ers looking scary after adding LeBron”
- r/nba discussion — “Is this LeBron’s most stacked team?”