It’s nearly a week later, other NBA business is going down, yet all anyone around the league — executives, players, fans — seems to talk about is LeBron James’ decision to join the Philadelphia 76ers. Here are the latest reactions and fallout from the decision
Not many people met with LeBron during his decision-making process, he kept the circle tight, but Draymond Green was one of the exceptions. On his Draymond Green Show podcast, he talked about what he believed was behind LeBron’s decision.
“You look at Golden State, and I ultimately don’t think Bron was ever able to get over the history, and I understand it, I get it. What we all ultimately always knew was like, that’s the hurdle to get over. I don’t think it’s the team, the organization, anything else. I think it’s the history. We live in a day and age where everybody who doesn’t have anything to say has something to say. And so, he’s gonna get crushed if he comes to the Warriors, ‘Ahh man, you went to team up with Steph, you had to go to them.’ I think ultimately that weighed in on the decision a lot. That played a big role in the Warriors not landing LeBron.”
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LeBron’s haters were going to criticize any decision he made, and he understood that, which is why what others thought likely played no role in his choice. The history with the Warriors thing, that is real, something ESPN’s Anthony Slater talked about on NBA Today (that and the fact the Warriors, even with LeBron, would not be contenders).
“I had a source tell me they think LeBron would have been more interested in playing with Steph Curry elsewhere, away from the Warriors, than actually going to the Warriors, just because of the history. And they think that’s part of the reason they were never ultimately considered.”
Which is why the idea that if the Warriors had traded for Anthony Davis things would have been different doesn’t fly. If the Warriors had been told by Rich Paul or LeBron that landing Davis guaranteed he was coming to the Bay Area the Warriors would have approached a Davis trade differently (and far more aggressively), but that was never the message given the Golden State front office.
In the wake of LeBron’s decision, Green has re-signed with the Warriors, as expected.
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LeBron talked to Cavaliers ownership
While the public story was that Rich Paul was the sole intermediary between LeBron and the front offices and ownership of the teams he was considering, that was not totally true. ESPN’s Shams Charania had previously reported that LeBron met with Cavaliers ownership, and on his Game Over podcast, LeBron’s agent, Rich Paul, confirmed that.
The Cavaliers made their pitch and ultimately it was just not enough, but LeBron did meet with them.
How the 76ers found out
The Philadelphia 76ers didn’t find out they had won the LeBron sweepstakes until just before the announcement went public — and they found out via a text from Rich Paul, reports Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
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Paul’s group text reached a contingent of 76ers stakeholders all at once, including team governor Josh Harris; co-owner David Blitzer; Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment president Bob Myers; executive vice president of basketball operations Jameer Nelson; and two-time All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey.
“Congrats,” the text read. “Sixers it is.”
76ers president of basketball operations Mike Gansey found out in a separate text, he was back in his native Ohio with family at the time.
He walked upstairs to tell his wife, Amy, first. “I’m like, ‘Babe, we just got LeBron,'” Gansey told ESPN. “She’s like, ‘What?!’ I’ll never forget that. And just seeing Rich’s texts and being like, ‘Oh my gosh, here we go.'”
Here we go indeed.
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