By Dan Gelston<\/p>\n
CAMDEN, N.J. \u2014 LeBron James took his seat and fidgeted with a microphone before he tossed his identification placard on the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou guys know who I am, right?\u201d James asked.<\/p>\n
Sure do. No introduction needed.<\/p>\n
LeBron James, the most famous basketball player in the world and the NBA\u2019s career scoring leader, was indeed in a No. 23 Philadelphia 76ers jersey. He\u2019s happy to play for the Sixers, happy to play with close friend and fellow All-Star Tyrese Maxey and happy to start a 24th NBA season \u2014 with no promises of how long his career is going to last.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s sure not in Philadelphia to lose.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t leave my family,\u201d James said Monday, \u201cto lose in the second round.\u201d<\/p>\n
James, Maxey, Joel Embiid and the other new star Sixers player, Jaylen Brown, were all on hand for media day ahead of the start of training camp and what figures to be the most anticipated season in Philly since Julius Erving\u2019s heyday.<\/p>\n
James is the undisputed star of the show.<\/p>\n
The usual assortment of beat writers and bloggers were dwarfed inside the Sixers\u2019 complex in New Jersey by cameras and questions from media entities far beyond the NBA scope. James, naturally, handled himself like a true professional, used to the global spotlight since he was put on a basketball pedestal as a teenager.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstand that the noise is going to be the noise,\u201d James said. \u201cWhat happens outside of this building is going to consistently happen, and it\u2019s going to be doubled and triple and quadrupled down on you. It just comes with the territory. I understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much as James did for Cleveland when he ended a 56-year championship drought for the city by leading the Cavaliers to the title in 2016, he\u2019s in Philadelphia largely to help snap a championship drought for the Sixers that stretches to 1983.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the luxury of my game is, I can do everything,\u201d James said. \u201cLiterally, I can do everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sixers went 45-37 last season and were swept in the second round by the eventual champion New York Knicks.<\/p>\n
Enter a summer makeover anchored by James\u2019 arrival.<\/p>\n
The 41-year-old James signed a modest $8 million, two-year contract on the veterans\u2019 minimum with the Sixers.<\/p>\n
James\u2019 resume is beyond compare in NBA history. He\u2019s a 22-time All-Star, a 21-time All-NBA selection, a four-time Most Valuable Player, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, a three-time All-Star Game MVP and a member of the NBA\u2019s 75th anniversary team.<\/p>\n
He also is coming off a season in which he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game. For his career, he has averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists in more than 1,600 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cHim being here is really cool,\u201d Maxey said.<\/p>\n
With key members of Sixers ownership and the front office watching from the side, James declined to get into the issue of how much longer he wants to play. His lone focus, he said, was learning how to play with new teammates \u2014 most, like Embiid, haven\u2019t won a title \u2014 and trying to bring the championship mentality he knows so well from winning titles with the Cavaliers, Heat and the Lakers to the Sixers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that I can, you know, bring that experience, bring that knowledge, bring the blueprint to the guys that\u2019s trying to accomplish some things that they haven\u2019t done in their career,\u201d James said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen everything that this league has to offer on the floor and off the floor, so I hope that every single day with my approach to the game, approach to the work, that it can translate to every single guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
James started his career in Cleveland in 2003 and spent seven seasons with the Cavaliers before heading to Miami for four seasons \u2014 where he won his first two NBA titles. He then returned to Cleveland for four more seasons, including that title run in 2016, and left in 2018 for the Lakers. He won a title in LA in 2020.<\/p>\n
He also won\u2019t set a timetable on how many years he has left in his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to speak on the future right now,\u201d James said. \u201cI think that would be doing a disservice to myself on just living in the moment, especially knowing that I am where I am in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Dan Gelston CAMDEN, N.J. \u2014 LeBron James took his seat and fidgeted with a microphone before he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,7,6,678,207,3817,66,4013],"class_list":["post-846082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia-76ers","tag-76ers","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-philadelphia76ers","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-reg"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117350388461747036","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}