More than a week after verbally committing to join the Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James formally signed his four-year contract on Monday evening. That officially wrapped up what was a very interesting free agent saga but, on the same day, Philadelphia 76ers managing partner Josh Harris indicated that he believed James and his management team took a pitch from the burgeoning Eastern Conference power quite seriously.
“I think they considered us very strongly,” Harris told ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk on Monday in Las Vegas. “I think he — I would be speculating on how he makes his decisions, and I don’t want to do that — but I think that they were really serious [about Philadelphia]. The fact that they took the meeting with us was something that they didn’t view lightly, so I think that they were very serious about it.”
It is no surprise that Harris would feel this way and, by proxy, say so publicly. However, there are at least rumblings that James did not personally meet with the Sixers, sending his representation instead, and that would counteract (at least in some ways) what Harris is saying in this case.
By the end of the process, it felt clear that James was making a three-team decision between the Lakers, Sixers and Cleveland Cavaliers, even if Los Angeles felt like a significant favorite on the day the best player in the world announced the choice. Still, Philadelphia likely made every effort to secure a commitment from James and, in some ways, it is tough to ignore how much fun it would have been to watch James playing alongside Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid and company for years to come.
