LeBron James announced on Friday that he will sign with the Philadelphia 76ers, a move that was confirmed by his agent Rich Paul and reported by ESPN. James, 41, agreed to a two-year contract worth $8 million with a player option, according to ESPN.
The signing fulfills a wish that dates back more than a decade. On July 1, 2014, Joel Embiid took to Twitter to publicly ask James to join Philadelphia. Ten days after that message, James chose to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Embiid kept the moment in mind. In 2016 the center reflected on social media that the team had come close to landing James two years earlier. Now, in 2026, Embiid will finally have the opportunity to play alongside the four-time MVP.
Current Sixers guard VJ Edgecombe has also noted James’s influence on his career. In a postgame news conference last season, Edgecombe said James was one of his biggest inspirations and credited him as a reason he began playing basketball. James had offered hints about his destination a week ago at Fanatics Fest, using the Sixers’ catchphrase “trust the process,” while Indiana guard Tyrese Haliburton repeatedly joked about James’s age, calling him “76 years old.”
With James now headed to Philadelphia, a long-running public pitch from Embiid has reached its conclusion. The pairing reunites a decade-old moment of outreach with a roster move that brings together one of the NBA’s most prominent veterans and the Sixers’ established core.
