After an ugly end to things in Los Angeles with the Lakers, losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Semifinals 0-4 during his final season with the purple and gold, LeBron James appears to have found a new basketball life as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, but why?

Well, in the opinion of Bill Simmons, the answer is twofold: the 76ers might actually make it to the NBA Finals in 2027, and James appears to genuinely love playing with Tyrese Maxey more than Luka Doncic.

“LeBron seems like you could see the light bulb going off with him. Like, Holy s**t, I might actually have a chance to make the finals and yeah, I'll play some center. Sure. Um, I, I'm going to bring this like did MJ ever play center for a team that was a possible finalist in Thunder,”

“So you can see, I agree with you, He seemed super happy. He obviously has a great relationship with, uh, with, with Maxey. I don't think the relationship with Luka was good, and I think we can safely say that. I don't, I, LeBron last year seemed pretty miserable the whole season, um, and knew he wasn't, it wasn't his team. This time he goes on, he's like, he knew it was Maxey's team, he signed up for it. Anyway, good start for them.”

While the suggestion that James and Doncic didn't particularly get along is certainly a spicy take, one thing that isn't is that “The King” appears to have found a very enjoyable court at the Xfinity Mobile Arena, where he's all smiles running the show with Maxey, Jaylen Brown, and Joel Embiid. If Nick Nurse can manage the egos and Mike Gansey can secure a decent backup center, who knows? Maybe LeBron James can add a fifth ring to his collection to go with a statue in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex.

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