The hatred by most of the country around the decision is not how long it took, but the idea that the NBA’s biggest alpha of the 21st century tucked his tail between his legs to go be a third option with a team that traded for Jaylen Brown just a few weeks earlier.
Nevermind that James spurned his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers for a second time, as he joined up with two other top-tier players to try to squeeze one more run at a championship out of his 41-year-old frame. If you are a Clevelander (like me), the hatred is not that James did not come home to finish his career with the team he started with, but rather showing he never really cared to be here in the first place. His return to Cleveland in 2014 was announced with a four-page letter on Sports Illustrated’s website, but remember that he was joining up with Kyrie Irving, and the prospect of the Cavaliers trading for Kevin Love (which they did just days later).
A four-year return to Cleveland culminated in the 2016 NBA Championship, ending a 52-year championship drought for all of the city’s major professional franchises.
When James left for Los Angeles in 2018 after four straight trips to the NBA Finals, Clevelanders were fine with it, because he delivered on the promise to get at least one for Northeast Ohio. Between 2018 and 2025, James only garnered one title, which was in the Covid bubble. LeBron set the NBA’s all-time scoring mark on February 7, 2023, and became the first player to play alongside his son in a regular season game when son Bronnie James checked into the game on October 22, 2024 against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
His time with the Lakers was marred by several injuries, limiting James to 56 games in the 2021-22 season, 55 in 2022-23, and just 60 a season ago.
Now the focus turns to Philadelphia, where James signed a 2-year, $8 million contract on Friday, the second year being a player option. This will be James’ final NBA contract, as he will be the first player to reach 25 seasons should he play out the full term of the deal. James joined up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, and the Lakers quickly traded for Anthony Davis once LeBron joined the franchise. James will get to play with Brown, Tyrese Maxey, and Joel Embiid. This has all the makings of Karl Malone and Gary Payton signing up with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant’s Lakers for the 2002-03 season.
Payton and Malone were looking for the championship ring that eluded them, with Malone playing his entire career with the Utah Jazz to that point, and Payton with the Seattle Supersonics respectively. (Payton did play 28 games with the Milwaukee Bucks after being dealt at the trade deadline the year prior.) The Lakers were crushed in five games by the Detroit Pistons that June.
James had been rumored for weeks to be going back to Cleveland or Miami to finish his career, the two franchises whom he is most notably attached to. Cleveland did nothing during the offseason other than re-signing star guard Donovan Mitchell to a max-level contract extension. Miami traded for Milwaukee’s star, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and had Bam Adebayo already in the fold. Instead, he signs with his fourth team, looking for one more ring for the thumb. Sixer fans have to know they are not getting the James of five years ago, where he was still a top-five player in the NBA. This is still a productive LeBron James, arguably a top three player in the history of the league. This is still a player capable of scoring 30 points on any given night, and will bring even more fans into the XFinity Mobile Arena than Jaylen Brown’s acquisition was already forecast to.
Yet, the Sixers had the most productive offseason of any of the NBA’s 30 franchises, and will be considered third-best in the conference when training camps open in late September. The Sixers will have to go through Miami, and the defending champion New York Knicks, the latter who play in the same division.
When LeBron left Cleveland the first time, author Scott Rabb penned the book “The Whore of Akron: One Man’s Search for the Soul of LeBron James.” The book was heralded as humorous, yet a profane look into the soul of a sports fan, and just how deep a betrayal from their star athlete can linger. The blueprint set by the Boston Celtics “Big Three” (Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen) from 2008 had manifested into the culture of today’s NBA. Unless you are the San Antonio Spurs, there is no longer the model of “building from within.” Instead to win a championship, you have to go out and buy up a top-20 talent to pair with an established franchise stalwart. Philadelphia will attempt to accomplish this next season, by pairing a developed Maxey with an oft-injured Embiid, then bringing in an all-worldly Brown and a ring-chasing James.
James may not be considered a whore with the pay-cut, but the words “prostitute” or “mercenary” do certainly come to mind for 29 other franchises. James was rumored to be going to Golden State to play with longtime rivals Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. The thought of going back to Miami only surfaced once Giannis was added to the picture. There were rumors that he would go to Minnesota to join up with Rudy Goebert and Anthony Edwards. The only destinations that would have been worse for James’ character would have been the Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder, or the Spurs, who are all favorites to win the 2027 NBA Championship before James announced his intentions to play elsewhere for next season.
After signing with his fourth team, James can also officially be referred to as a “journeyman” NBA player. Despite being the only player in NBA history to win the Bill Russell Finals MVP award with three different franchises, this makes him no different than Robert Horry or James Jones…just with a lot more points scored. In the end, the legacy of LeBron will be known as having the chance to write a storybook tale, only to rewrite the final page with the worst ending possible.
We have now all bare witness to the third edition (and re-write) to the same book.
-JC24