LeBron James, as you would expect for one of the greatest athletes in history, had a long list of options this summer.

In Cleveland, he had a play for the romantics. It was a return home to where it started, a return home to where he won his most historically significant title, a guaranteed victory lap no matter what happened in his final year(s) with the Cavaliers. 

In Miami, he had familiarity. This was the only place where he had won multiple titles, in a market that isn’t quite as challenging to its stars, with a lead star in Giannis who could lead the team himself. 

Even in Golden State, where he’d have to convince longtime rival fans to embrace him as Steph Curry’s partner, there would be no real burden of expectation. The prospect of LeBron with the Warriors had been referred to as an NBA version of the Expendables — a box office draw with familiar faces, but removed from the primes of all involved.

“There were only three real choices,” a source familiar with LeBron’s thinking told PHLY on Friday night. “The draw of Golden State was just about how fun it would be to play with Steph and Dray.”

Philadelphia, by comparison, brings its share of downside. If it doesn’t work here? There will be no lionization of a late-career LeBron, a man who many hoped would join the team in free agency eight years earlier. There will be questions about how all these pieces fit, how good their defense can be, and surely, questions about how meaningfully the Sixers can develop VJ Edgecombe, a top three pick who suddenly finds himself fifth in the pecking order. There are quite a few people in Philadelphia who were exhausted by waiting for a few weeks on LeBron’s decision even though there was zero meaningful Sixers downside to wait for his choice. If it doesn’t work here, LeBron’s fault or not, his all-consuming nature will leave him on the wrong side of a loud, proud, and large fanbase. 

But there lies the beauty of this choice. Rather than running from expectation, from the ever present legacy talks that have followed him for over two decades, LeBron ultimately chose the path of pressure. He will play for a title-starved fanbase on the team of one of his childhood heroes, Allen Iverson, because the pursuit of excellence is still what drives him after all these years. 

That much is clear from watching him play. The Lakers were viewed as house money in the first round when Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves suffered late-season injuries, only for LeBron to lead L.A. to a series win over the Rockets in six games. At 41 years old, LeBron averaged 23-7-8 and played nearly 39 minutes per game to pull a series win out of the clear blue sky.

His ability to be a human chess piece for the Lakers, as he was in Miami and Cleveland previously, is what makes this Philadelphia arrival so exciting. LeBron’s ability to play make, shot make, rebound, drive, dunk, steal, and think the game has allowed role players like Luke Kennard to swing stretches of the playoffs. There will be a mutually beneficial relationship between Philly’s ascending backcourt duo and LeBron, who can lean on their youth and joie de vivre while they benefit from the stream of open threes he can hit them for as bodies collapse toward the paint to stop him.

And it is no secret, naturally, that one mighty big Philadelphia transaction put the Sixers in play to begin with. 

“The Sixers were a serious contender [to sign LeBron] the second they traded for Jaylen,” a source told PHLY.

That move was a statement of intent, and for all the outstanding questions about how they’ll divide touches and figure out floor spots for the James/Brown/Embiid trio, it helped strengthen the position of a Sixers contingent that already had strong ties with James. LeBron’s previous relationships and respect for Bob Myers, David Blitzer, and Mike Gansey were noted as important pieces of the puzzle, per sources, with the Brown transaction an example of their ability to shake up the team and the league to put together a winner.

(On Myers — it turns out his passive approach on Rich Paul’s podcast, when he simply said that he believed LeBron could win in Philadelphia, was the right way to talk to a student of the game of the highest order. Rather than spinning LeBron a yarn, Myers ultimately trusted that their target was savvy enough to see the situation for the golden opportunity they believed it to be, respecting his intelligence and experience would lead him to the Sixers.)

LeBron’s fondness for Philadelphia and its fans, something he has talked about in interviews as recently as the past year, was not a trivial detail. Here was an opportunity to play in a city known for its passion, one that had celebrated him even as a visiting player, and attempt to help them end a title drought of over four decades. Iverson has been a hero to the city for a run that landed Philadelphia precisely one won game in the Finals, iconic as that stepover and victory may be. Being the final piece to restore the glory of Moses, Doc, The Strangler, Cheeks and Co.? Not an opportunity to be taken lightly. 

With his arrival will come, of course, a wave of noise and conjecture that will dwarf anything that has ever hit Philadelphia sports. For the last few weeks, there was speculation and reporting about what the holdup would be. Mistakenly posted YouTube videos from Heat employees were viewed as law. The thought was that LeBron was only dangling Philadelphia to pressure the Warriors into trading for Anthony Davis, or to bait Cleveland into facilitating one last team team up with Kyrie Irving on the Cavs. No Joel Embiid trade? No LeBron signing, according to various charlatans and never was insiders. 

Put simply? 

“The Sixers were fourth in Polymarket odds for the majority of free agency,” one source familiar with his thinking pointed out. “Nobody had a fucking clue about anything beyond a few people. LeBron wasn’t talking to anybody.”

But most important is the work ahead. The great news is that LeBron’s legendary work ethic and attention to detail will be sprinkled into a stew Tyrese Maxey already has cooking. Klutch’s star student, a master craftsman who has meaningfully improved every year, has made it his personal mission to set a nightly standard as Philadelphia’s leader. VJ Edgecombe’s maturity and work ethic were even greater than expected after his amateur career produced one superlative review after another. And Brown, having already won a title with a supermax contract to his name, has already made clear he is ready to get in the gym and push Embiid, a player already dedicated enough to have styled himself into an MVP after picking up the game in high school. If they can all get on board and commit to the collective above all else, it is a group that will push one another to new heights each and every day. And long after LeBron has retired, the example he sets may keep the fire burning for Edgecombe, who can delight in knowing he will draw the least important defender in every starting lineup the Sixers will face.

With a simple agreement, LeBron’s move to Philly is already one of the biggest events in the history of a storied sports city. And though it may come with more risk than a stress free retirement tour, LeBron’s willingness to join the Sixers put the bullseye on his back again is why he has endured as all his peers have fallen away. A move fit for a king, indeed.