LeBron James just made what he's calling his last decision, and it's a doozy: at 41 years old, coming off a season where he reportedly questioned whether he still loved the game, he's signing a 2-year, $8 million deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. That's a massive pay cut from the $53 million he was making with the Lakers, and according to his camp, this was never about money. It was about chasing one more ring in a city that hasn't seen a title in 43 years.
The Barstool crew wasted no time turning Wake Up Barstool into command central for the reaction. The graphic hit the screen -- LeBron James signs 2-year, $8M deal with 76ers -- and the hosts broke down a projected starting five of Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Jaylen Brown, LeBron and Joel Embiid.
The Wake Up Barstool crew laid out the news graphic and the projected 76ers starting lineup.
Dave Portnoy's first reaction set the tone for everything that followed: he doesn't think this works at the level Philly fans expect it to, which is nothing short of championship or bust. That's not a small bar. Sixers fans have been burned by almost every version of a super-team promise for two decades, and now they're being asked to buy in on a 41-year-old, no matter how many rings he's got.
From there Portnoy went in on LeBron's track record, calling him out for never being a team player off the court and pointing to what he framed as a pattern of taking credit when things go well and pointing fingers when they don't. He also brought up the coaching carousel angle -- his read being that plenty of coaches who've worked with LeBron over the years didn't exactly love the experience.
Portnoy went after LeBron's reputation as a teammate, tying it to the actual signing news.
Then came the part of the story that turned this from a basketball debate into a full-blown city-pride fight: reports that LeBron may actually live in New York and commute to Philly to play. Portnoy called that the biggest slap in the face a city could get, dark day for Philadelphia territory, outrage and all -- albeit delivered with his usual comedic exaggeration. It's the kind of detail that takes a signing story and turns it into a referendum on whether a 41-year-old superstar even wants to be there.
Portnoy reacted to the report that LeBron might live in New York while suiting up for Philly.
The commute report also spun into a comedy bit, with one segment comparing it to how Barstool's own Big Fan Wife would feel if a Mississippi State player didn't want to live in Starkville -- a bit that only lands because the underlying premise is genuinely stinging Philly's fanbase. Add in Governor Josh Shapiro declaring an actual LeBron James Day, which Portnoy called one of the more embarrassing moves in the state's history given how many great Philly athletes never got that treatment, and you've got a fanbase that's simultaneously thrilled and insulted before LeBron has taken a single shot in a Sixers jersey.
None of this happens without the Jaylen Brown trade. Sources have said Philly landing Brown from Boston was the domino that pushed LeBron to pick the Sixers over Miami, Cleveland and Golden State, with Brown reportedly squashing old tension from 2024 comments about Bronny to help recruit him alongside Maxey and Embiid. Whether that recruiting class is enough to get LeBron a fifth ring -- or whether Portnoy's right that the Sixers end up the biggest loser in all of this -- is the storyline that carries into training camp.