A post circulating on social media Sunday claimed LeBron James was signing with the Philadelphia 76ers on a two-year, $8 million deal with a player option, attributing the report to ESPN’s Shams Charania and Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul. No mainstream outlet has published any such report. The claim is fabricated.
The real Charania-Rich Paul-ESPN pipeline produced a very different story on June 29: James exercised his $52.6 million player option to remain with the Los Angeles Lakers for the 2025-26 season, his 23rd in the NBA. Paul told ESPN that James “wants to compete for a championship” and “values a realistic chance of winning it all,” while acknowledging the Lakers are simultaneously building for the future. The Athletic independently confirmed the opt-in.
Eight million dollars over two years for a player earning $52.6 million in a single season is not a contract — it’s a typo with legs. James signed a two-year, $101.35 million deal with the Lakers in July 2024. His career on-court earnings already sit around $581 million, the highest in NBA history. An $8 million total package would represent roughly an 85 percent pay cut from his current salary, which is the kind of thing that happens when somebody types numbers into a fake tweet template and hits send.
James, who turns 41 in December, is coming off a season in which he averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 8.2 assists across 70 games and earned All-NBA Second Team honors. He sprained a knee ligament in the Lakers’ first-round playoff loss to Minnesota but told the Associated Press he expects to be near full strength by training camp in late September. The 2025-26 season will be his first full campaign alongside Luka Dončić, who arrived from Dallas in a February trade that reshaped the Western Conference landscape.
On Lakers media day, James told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that his contract status — he is now entering the final year of his deal — would have “no impact” on the season. “I’m super excited about the challenges and the excitement of our team,” he said. “I’m not worried about contracts.”
The Lakers added center Deandre Ayton, guard Marcus Smart, and forward Jake LaRavia during the offseason, supplementing a core that entered last postseason as the No. 3 seed in the West before the early exit.
James has appeared in 1,562 regular-season games, 49 behind Robert Parish’s all-time record of 1,611. If healthy, he will break that mark this season — in a Lakers uniform, not a 76ers one, and for considerably more than $4 million a year.
The fabricated post mirrors the structure of legitimate Charania breaking-news alerts — naming Klutch Sports, Rich Paul, and ESPN — but inverts the substance entirely. The verified reporting from those same sources confirms James is locked into his Lakers option for 2025-26 and has not signed with any other team.
