23 years ago, I sat beside 18-year-old LeBron James on a bench in the Cleveland Cavaliers locker room. I was preparing the Sports Illustrated cover story on the most anticipated rookie debut quite possibly ever in any sport. LeBron had already graced the SI cover as a high schooler under the tagline "The Chosen One" (boy, that's not much pressure).
We sat there making small talk as an SI photographer prepared for the shoot, and I was keenly aware of our age difference. One of my tricks in that situation, which you come across more and more frequently, is to work into the conversation your own dealings with the immortals of the game: Jordan, Bird, Magic, and the like. A kid LeBron's age can't possibly care what I have to say in general, but if you can gracefully bring into the conversation some of his idols, you have a path forward.
But even as I pondered our difference in ages, it also occurred to me how old he seemed, beyond his years. Part of it was physical. He looked at least 15 years older. Now that he's 41, he looks, say, 45. But there was a world-weariness about him; an "I've-seen-it-all" aspect to him. And I remember thinking, "He's gonna screw it up." A kid without a father, a mother who had drug problems, millions of dollars in endorsements thrown at him, temptation at his fingertips, his boyhood friends as his advisors.
And LeBron has never screwed it up. No major missteps, no scandals, no drugs, no 3:00 a.m. bar fights, no financial disasters, not even a divorce. He has myriad endorsements and an entertainment production company named SpringHill, after the housing project where he was brought up in Akron, Ohio.
And oh, yes, you might have heard, he's coming to the Philadelphia 76ers, his fifth NBA stopping place, including two in Cleveland. The city, and indeed the surrounding area, including the Lehigh Valley, stopped dead in its tracks for a while when the announcement was made on Friday — proclaimed LeBron James Day in Pennsylvania, by the way, by Governor Josh Shapiro. Hey, I pushed back a vacation for a day to record this.
I've tried to analyze why it was such a big story. Yes, the Sixers have a better chance to win a championship, but it was more like, "Hey, he picked us. We're special. We have more to offer than Miami or the Bay Area," his other likely destinations, or Los Angeles, the team he left to once again try free agency.
Now for the basketball questions. Why did he come? Tell you the truth, I was surprised. There is one reason and one reason only that LeBron would come to the Sixers and accept a minimum salary: to try and win a championship. You don't come to Philly for the movie opportunities or the weather or to be worshiped by the beautiful people. Unlike his velvety experience in LA, where mostly what matters is the show, if LeBron is perceived to be a failure in Sixer land, he will be booed unmercifully from Fishtown to Frankfurt.
LeBron knows all this. He saw the recent acquisition of Jaylen Brown from the Celtics and the foundation of young players, Tyrese Maxey and V.J. Edgecombe, and the sometimes brilliant, sometimes hobbling center Joel Embiid, and concluded, "This is where I can do what no one else has ever done: take four different franchises to championships."
Do I see it happening? Well, this topic will be revisited during the coming year a couple times, but this is my quick answer in July: no. LeBron and the young players will be fine, but figuring out a way to play with Jaylen Brown and how to figure out the puzzle of Embiid? Too much to overcome for a 41-year-old, even a legend. I hope I'm wrong, but as I said, we'll revisit.
And no, I can't get you tickets.
