Voltar
It’s just two games, but LeBron James looks comfortable in a Philadelphia uniform. He’s playing a facilitator role and has averaged 15.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and six assists a game, and the team is 2-0, having beaten each of last season’s Eastern Conference Finalists.
The second of those wins, a 29-point comeback to knock off Cleveland, pitted LeBron and the 76ers against a team many around the league expected him to choose this summer, the Cavaliers. LeBron said he seriously considered it, as Tony Jones at The Athletic reported.
“The nature of the meeting, I probably won’t discuss much,” James said on Thursday night. “But it was in consideration for sure. I mean, obviously, as a team trying to build towards a championship and things of that nature, I was trying to decide where I wanted to go with the rest of my career, to finish my career, or the next step. So, they had a lot of consideration for sure.”
LeBron’s choice stung a little in Cleveland, something Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson laid out before the teams met, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
“We were anticipating and excited [to land James] and then you have that [news],” Atkinson said pregame when asked about James going to Philadelphia. “Having gone through free agency a lot, when you’re expecting something to happen and it doesn’t happen, that first day or two, you’re just like, you’re depressed, quite honestly. That’s the emotions of it.”
Whether he thought the 76ers were closer to contention, wanted to live in New York (part-time, and commute by helicopter), or for some other reason, LeBron chose Philadelphia and isn’t looking back now.