LeBron James has played his first game for the Philadelphia 76ers, the fourth team of his career. In 18 minutes of a preseason loss to the Brooklyn Nets, the 41-year-old took a single shot from the field, made all eight of his free throws and led his team in assists.
LeBron James made his preseason debut for the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday, October 8, ESPN reported.
The 76ers lost 114-108 to the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center in New York.
His Numbers
- 18 minutes, all in the first half
- 10 points
- 4 rebounds
- 5 assists, the most on his team
- 1 of 1 from the field and 8 of 8 from the free-throw line
Philadelphia outscored Brooklyn by 10 points while he was on the court.
‘The Game Is the Game’
“It felt a little different,” James said afterwards. “Obviously, just wearing a new uniform, but the game is the game.”
“I was happy to be able to log some minutes with the guys that we’ve been going at each other in practice for the last two weeks.”
James, 41, is a 24-year NBA veteran. The 76ers are the fourth franchise of his career, and ESPN described them as likely to be his last. He still wears number 23.
A Passer First
His first notable act was a three-quarter-court pass to VJ Edgecombe for a layup, little more than a minute into the game.
“Someone like him just requires so much gravity and attracts so much attention that I just got to play off of him,” said Edgecombe, who scored 11 points.
Coach Nick Nurse has said he sees James less as a point forward than as an “offense creator”.
“He’s a great, great passer; it was certainly on display tonight,” Nurse said. “I thought he really read the game well.”
The New Starting Five
It was also the first outing for Philadelphia’s planned starting line-up: James, Joel Embiid, Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey and Edgecombe.
The group outscored the Nets by two points in the 10 minutes it played together.
- Jaylen Brown: 18 points
- Tyrese Maxey: 14 points
- VJ Edgecombe: 11 points
Embiid’s Difficult Night
Joel Embiid struggled. He scored six points on 1-of-5 shooting and committed eight turnovers in 24 minutes.
“I got to do a better job of taking care of the ball,” he said. “It’s going to take a few games to get going.”
Nurse was more concerned with the fact that he played at all, after the injuries of recent seasons. “I’m extremely happy he was out there with the group, and I thought he was playing very hard,” he said.
Image: LeBron James and Joel Embiid, now team-mates in Philadelphia, with the US team at the 2024 Olympics (file photo). Photo by Clément Bardot via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
