Our friends at NBC Sports Philadelphia believe the Sixers are in prime position to land LeBron James this summer . . . and certainly in better position than the Celtics. Go read their take, then see our response below.
Sorry, Philly. You may have taken the Super Bowl from us, but you ain’t getting LeBron James.
LeBron picking the Sixers over the Celtics would be like a local picking Geno’s over Tony Luke’s. I don’t even have to list the Celts' upside. Just listen to the Philadelphia downside.
First of all, the Sixers were drastically overrated heading into their playoff series with Boston. That numerically inflated winning streak before the playoffs was the biggest scam going. Their opponents were garbage. They were blessed by playing trash like the Knicks, Nets, Mavericks and Hornets not once but twice during that stretch. Yeah, yeah, they beat Miami in five games in the first round. BIG WHOOP!
If your argument is Philly has better young talent than Boston, you belong on the dumb, dumb train. Without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, Boston could have -- and should have -- beaten LeBron and the Cavs in the Eastern Confence Finals. No one knows this better than LeBron because, well, uh, he was there. The problem is the Celtic youth puckered up and choked the series away. LeBron is certainly thinking, "Man, what I could do with those young studs Tatum, Rozier and Brown?"
Ben Simmons? The Le-Ben love affair ended as soon LBJ saw the faux rookie, Simmons, stink up the semis like baby poop. Let me know when the third-year player can shoot a fifteen footer. Of course, the Sixers' REAL rookie, Markelle Fultz, was nowhere to be found . . . which bring us to Brian Colangelo.
Boston Celtics
Never, ever trust a man with big collars; that’s what I say. This is the GM who broke the Sixers' streak of drafting good players. Fultz played at Washington and Tatum played at Duke. Danny Ainge, who sports normal-sized collars, went with the kid who actually went to a basketball school and actually played against real college basketball teams. Fultz and Washington lost to Yale. Ugh.
And, oh yeah: Brian or his wife (yeah, right) conducted a smear Twitter campaign against his own players! Yeah, LeBron is going to a team that hired that creep.
FROM NBC SPORTS BAY AREA
The one chip the Sixers have is their big man, Joel Embiid. This guy I love. He can obviously play, has a ton of passion, and would flourish having LeBron as a mentor. But is he enough? No.
And the Celtics? They have Brad Stevens. No shot at Brett Brown, but Brad came one win away from putting a team in the NBA Finals without his two biggest stars. After dealing with Ty Lue and JR “Brain Fart” Smith, LeBron is just aching to playing for and with people with a high basketball IQ.
Now toss in Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and even Al Horford. The two young guys are going to be perennial All-Stars and Horford is a great teammate who would thrive with LBJ taking away all the pressure.
So, sorry Philly. We get LeBron hands down. You know why? Because our roster is better and we deserve it. Which is the same reason you won the Super Bowl.