I Hope LeBron Takes Until January
AU encourages The King of Wishful Attention-Seeking to take his time making the entire rest of the league crazy.
I don’t want LeBron James to come to the Sixers. I honestly can’t remember if this is something I’ve ever talked about before on the Ricky or something I’ve talked about so much over the years that people are sick to death of hearing me go on about it — I think the last time LeBron-to-Philly was a quasi-plausible thing I had either just started at RTRS or was wrapping up my time at The 700 Level (shoutout Enrico Campitelli). But I’ve never been a LeBron guy and would very much like to never know what it’s like to have him on the Sixers. Probably not quite willing to go Spike-far and say that I don’t think I could root for the Sixers with him on them; I’m guessing I could find a way. But all things being equal it’s a firm No Thanks from me. Not a basketball decision at all; peak LeBron is undoubtedly the greatest player I’ve ever watched and he’s still very good in 2026. Having him on my team just isn’t an experience I’ve ever been interested in.
And like Spike, I don’t think it’s too likely it’ll happen. Don’t want to get too deep into that here; suffice to say I think LeBron is ultimately more interested in comfort than winning at this point in his career — as he probably should be, at least as I probably would be — and I don’t see the Philly situation as particularly comfortable for him. But who knows, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he loves the situation here, maybe Tyrese Maxey is his Klutch soulmate and VJ Edgecombe is like a third son to him and he’s already learning to two-finger-tap guitar solo from Nick Nurse. At this point I think what everyone wants more than anything is just for him to make a decision already, to go to Philly or Miami or Cleveland or Golden State or to none of those places, to stop dragging this thing out and just put his name to a contract so the rest of the league can move on with their business.
Well, everyone except me, anyway. I think he should drag this thing out even further, probably until January or so. I think it’s funnier that way.
I guess this is where Spike and I start to diverge on the matter. Spike appears to be getting driven slowly — probably not really that slowly — insane by all the LeBron Watch stuff, and seems desperate for the situation to reach resolution. I sympathize; if I were the co-host of a twice-a-week Sixers podcast that demanded I break down every clumsily dropped breadcrumb or awkwardly planted easter egg left by LeBron or his various associates over weeks of interviews and podcasts and seemingly unnecessary media appearances, I would also want this shit to be done with but quick. But, well, I’m not. All I really have to put up with is the well-meaning folks over at Sixers Bluesky who are deadset on convincing themselves that this is a real thing that could happen. I can basically handle them. Hell, they could be right.
But it is funny to me to watch everyone, including both my fellow haters and the supporters of LeBron to Philly 2026, be brought to madness by his indecision. It’s funny to watch the other teams who might otherwise still be wheeling and dealing this summer caught frozen in inaction by waiting for this one smugly smiling final domino to fall. It’s funny to watch the Shams Charanias and Brian Windhorsts of the world flail as they attempt to continue to break news on relevant developments of LeBron’s free agency, when there’s only really one relevant development about it still left to break, which none of them yet have. And it’s incredibly funny to have Dave Silver himself complain about how long LeBron’s taking, because he can’t figure out how to stack the Christmas schedule without yet knowing what team this guy is going to play for. It’s just fantastic stuff all around.
I strongly doubt this was LeBron’s main intent, or even one of his side intents, but this whole thing is kinda functioning as a biting satire of the NBA machine in general, that the entire thing can be nearly ground to a halt by one soon-to-be-42-year-old’s undying love of being courted at the Free Agency ball. Not that this isn’t a real thing — a guy who averaged 21-6-7 last year on decent efficiency potentially signing with an NBA team for the veteran’s minimum is obviously a story, and a big one. But the fact that it’s taking up quite so much of the oxygen shows just how much LeBron has dominated all aspects of basketball discourse over the past two decades and change, and how poorly the league has done in cultivating newer, younger stars to drive anywhere near equivalent levels of interest in the meantime. In reality, I don’t think any of these teams being discussed (including ours) are going to win the championship or not based on whether or not LeBron goes there. But just going by the league frenzy around it, you’d think this was still MVP LeBron in 2010 revealing his The Decision for the first time. Father Time: perhaps not undefeated after all.
A handful of folks — maybe even Spike and Mike? — have raised the possibility of LeBron not only dragging this out the rest of the summer, but actually waiting a couple months into the season to make his free agency call. And to that I say: Sure, why not? Makes sense. LeBron certainly seems to love this part of his league centrality as much as he loves actually playing star-level basketball at this point, and the longer he waits to start with the latter, the easier it’ll be for him to do it anyway. If money’s not a major issue for him here — #NoMr305 — why not wait to see what these teams are actually gonna be like next year? If Philly’s really in consideration, why not wait to see if Joel Embiid stays healthy, if VJ Edgecombe is ready to take the leap, if Jaylen Brown isn’t actually an enemy plant? Are Giannis and Bam gonna gel in Miami? Is Jimmy Butler still gonna be an elite basketball player and/or trade chip for Golden State? Will James Harden.... well, James Harden is always gonna be James Harden, but I’m sure there’s some other shit for him to figure out for Cleveland. Why not take as long as possible with it?
I think he should. Partly because it makes sense for him, but mostly because I think it’ll be funny for the rest of us. Those of us who aren’t really that invested in this at the end of the day, anyway. I don’t want LeBron to come here, but I do have to again agree with Spike that perhaps the only funnier thing in the world than him spending weeks burying Sixers references in his interviews like he’s Taylor Swift sending fans on a liner-notes scavenger hunt only to not sign with the Sixers, would be for LeBron to actually sign with the Sixers, at any point, for any reason. The idea of LeBron holding up a Sixers jersey with JAMES 76 on the back (of course he’d choose No. 76) while standing next to a constipatedly smiling Josh Harris... it’s almost too funny to contemplate. LeBron James, on the Sixers. The Philadelphia 76ers. Sam Hinkie’s and Joel Embiid’s Philadelphia 76ers. Straight-up ROFLCOPTER.
And if he does it in January or February? Even better. I’d still probably rather he go elsewhere, but the idea of us spending half a season with the best, most attention-hungry player of the 21st century on the team at the end of his career is almost too hilarious to pass up. By then maybe we could use the infusion of energy, interest and/or content anyway. The Sixers are 18-14 to start the season, with Tyrese in a bit of a funk, Jaylen’s efficiency dropping and Joel only playing one out of every three games? Oh, well, at least the best player since MJ is now somehow suddenly on the team. It seems like the ideal situation for all involved, honestly. So don’t listen to the fans, the media pundits, and particularly not the fucking NBA commissioner trying to tell you to just put an end to this already, LeBron. You just wait until you’re good and ready, and the rest of the league will have to wallow in the mess it’s made over the course of your entire career in the interim. After all, you’ve earned this. We all have.
Andrew Unterberger writes for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, as part of the ‘If Not, Pick Will Convey as Two Second-Rounders’ section of the site. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AUGetoffmygold and can also read him at Billboard.
Harris “smiling constipatedly” is poetry.
The Lebron we deserve has arrived by not arriving. Love it.