LeBron James’ arrival at the Philadelphia 76ers is part of a major shakeup that fans will hope also results in Joel Embiid returning to his rampant best. The symptoms have been positive, with Embiid reportedly losing considerable weight in the current offseason as Philadelphia played their first game of the preseason.
And well, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne believes that the transformation has much to do with LeBron’s arrival, something she also noticed with the likes of Anthony Davis when James first joined the Los Angeles Lakers, per HoopsHype.
“I've been hearing Embiid's getting to the gym early, he's down to his rookie weight, this is a new Joel,” she said. “Everybody's trying to kind of earn LeBron's approval and respect. I think there's an interesting quality to this now in Philly. I saw this here in Los Angeles in 2020, when Anthony Davis and LeBron James first got together for that full season, they won a championship. Anthony Davis was like trying to impress LeBron.”
Davis, despite his consistent injury troubles, played 62 regular-season games in 2019-20 as the duo won the championship in their first season together. Shelburne explained Embiid is similarly trying to impress James.
Article Continues Below“Like, he played every game, There was a tide lift amongst the stars too with the LeBron James effect. That's what I've been hearing out of Philly so far is this sort of LeBron is one of the greatest of all time, if not the greatest, and everybody kind of wants his approval.”
Philadelphia’s franchise star has not played 40 games in a season since 2022-23, and appeared in just 38 regular-season games last campaign. However, the 76ers are now expected to mount a title challenge, and for that, they undoubtedly need Embiid to remain fit, especially through the business end of the season. Embiid sat out of the 76ers’ first preseason game against the New York Knicks as part of workload management and is largely expected to be fit for the start of the season.
On paper, Philadelphia has both the talent and the depth to remain competitive even if Embiid ends up missing a few regular-season games.