LeBron James signs with 76ers for his 24th NBA season

LeBron James has signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, ending an offseason free-agency saga and setting up the 40-year-old's 24th NBA season with a fourth franchise. The team confirmed the move Sunday, two days after James announced the decision on social media, calling it his "last decision" after seriously weighing retirement.

The deal is worth two years and $8 million, with a player option for the second season and a 15 percent trade kicker — a steep discount from the roughly $53 million James made last season with the Los Angeles Lakers. He leaves after eight seasons in Los Angeles and returns to the Eastern Conference for the first time since his second stint in Cleveland.

James joins a Philadelphia roster already built around former MVP Joel Embiid, All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey, 2024 Finals MVP Jaylen Brown and rising wing VJ Edgecombe. Sixers managing partner Josh Harris said in the team's release that he was "thrilled to welcome LeBron James," while president of basketball operations Mike Gansey called him "one of the greatest players to ever play the game of basketball."

The all-time leading scorer, a four-time champion and 22-time All-Star, James said money and family were not what drove the decision. "I still want to sacrifice. I still want to work. I still want to grind. I still want to compete, to win and to have a chance at the feeling of winning another championship," he said, according to ESPN. His agent, Rich Paul, added that James wanted a fresh chapter rather than a return to Cleveland or Miami, franchises where he already delivered titles: "You kind of want to leave those memories where they were."

Philadelphia has not won a championship since 1983 and has not advanced past the second round of the playoffs since 2001; last season the Sixers went 45-37 before being swept by the New York Knicks. The James signing immediately reshapes expectations for a team that now features four All-Star-caliber scorers when healthy, though Embiid's history of knee injuries and James's own age remain open questions.

Reaction across the league was swift. Rival guard Vince Carter called the move "cheating" and wished other teams "good luck," while Kevin Durant predicted Philadelphia would be a "juggernaut," according to Yahoo Sports. Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper said the city was "on fire" over the news.

Should James help deliver Philadelphia its first title in more than four decades, he would become the first player in NBA history to win championships with four different franchises, adding to rings already won in Miami, Cleveland and Los Angeles. He turns 42 in December and has publicly acknowledged this contract is likely to be his last.

James enters the season as the only player ever to suit up for a 24th NBA campaign, a milestone that has become its own running story alongside his statistical résumé of 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game for his career. His arrival also complicates Philadelphia's timeline: the franchise had been widely expected to build patiently around Maxey and a healthy Embiid, and now must instead balance a win-now roster with James's age and the 76ers' long injury history at center.

The signing closes out one of the more unpredictable stretches of this year's free agency, which also saw Giannis Antetokounmpo land in Miami and Julius Randle move to Brooklyn in a three-team trade. Philadelphia had quietly been mentioned as a suitor for weeks, with a local company even purchasing billboards near Cleveland urging James to choose the Sixers. Training camp opens in the coming weeks, with Philadelphia's season-opening matchup expected to draw national attention as James debuts in a new uniform for the first time since 2018.