LeBron James’ status as a soon-to-be free agent has led to a full year of NBA fans trying to read into every move The King makes to see if they can find evidence of what his decision will be this July.
There are, at this point, four teams most consider to be legitimate contenders for James, although there’s always the possibility that number is higher or lower. The Cavs, obviously, are in the running to retain their hometown hero, while the Lakers will be trying everything in their powers to lure him to L.A. Houston would need to clear a lot of cap space and get Chris Paul to take a discounted deal, but James’ friendship with Paul and their status as the current top contender in the NBA to Golden State makes them a possibility if the money can get figured out.
And then there’s Philadelphia, a team that will certainly have the money to make a run at LeBron and with their young core showing real signs of promise they have an interesting case to make in a meeting with James that they provide the best on court path to a title. James’ relationship with Ben Simmons is well-known, and Simmons has even dropped not-so-subtle hints on Instagram that he’ll be recruiting his Klutch Sports compatriot come July 1. Philly fans followed that up by putting up billboards in Cleveland calling for LeBron to “complete the process,” which James called “flattering.”
All of that is well and good, but NBA fans aren’t satiated by simply discussing rumors, they have to dig deeper for more clues into James’ thinking. James is a family man and for the second time this year rumors of LeBron and his wife Savannah touring private schools became NBA free agency news. The first time was in L.A., when James was definitely at a school although his intentions beyond a workout were unclear.
The most recent was a rumor that floated about James touring a private school in the Philadelphia area over the All-Star break, which made Sixers fans excited that he was considering them. On Thursday, James laughed off the rumor and said he did not step foot in the state of Pennsylvania during the All-Star break and those reports were incorrect.
LeBron James said he did not go to any high schools in Pennsylvania during the All-Star Break: pic.twitter.com/SczB3KYS3Q
— Jessica Camerato (@JessicaCamerato) March 1, 2018
Philly fans will need to pump the brakes just a bit on preparing to purchase their LeBron jerseys, but this doesn’t really mean much. It means he didn’t take a break from his one vacation time during the year to look at schools, but that’s not a surprise at all and the reports were flimsy at best when they came out. The Sixers still figure to be in the running for James this summer, although they probably aren’t the favorites to land him, and any postseason success they can have this year would likely help them in their pursuit.
In the meantime, private school tour watch is the evolution of flight tracking, which reminds me that FlightAware season is approaching rapidly. I can’t wait for Twitter sleuths to try and figure out which private plane flying out of the Akron and Cleveland areas belongs to James as he enters free agency in July.
