LeBron James has a dubious reputation for taking his time when choosing a new team. The NBA has been enraptured by his potential decision in four separate offseasons. It makes sense because LeBron isn’t just a player; he’s a business. His decisions rightfully take time. Far more than any other NBA player, LeBron’s business empire has lengthy and innumerable tendrils that stretch among all avenues from sport to finance.
Much of the idea of LeBron the commodity is tied to his on-court performance—he’s a winning, floor-raising player, he seamlessly fits into any scheme, and is one of the great basketball minds the game has ever seen. When his teams win, franchise valuation also rises, host cities get a sizable economic bump, and the team becomes a little more attractive to free agents, perpetuating a winning culture for LeBron’s tenure.
After a tumultuous offseason that prompted Commissioner Adam Silver to step in and spur the process along, LeBron has chosen the Philadelphia 76ers as his latest and likely final home. With as long as his decisions take, and despite the courting by every franchise in the league, LeBron has decided that his clearest path to winning is with a cast of many former Portland Trail Blazers.
76ers have turned into the Trail Blazers East
Five of Philadelphia’s players called Portland home, some as soon as last season. While this by no means indicates that Portland’s former pieces are championship cornerstones, it does underscore the fact that the Blazers’ past bench depth is appealing to LeBron in some capacity.
Anfernee Simons, Jabari Walker, Rayan Rupert, Trendon Watford and Caleb Love are the Blazers alumni joining James on his last ride, a collection of players spanning each micro-iteration of the team in years past. The highest-profile of them is Simons, who has bounced around the league after being traded to Boston for Jrue Holiday in 2025’s offseason.
Simons could very well be a component of a winning squad, as he is an electrifying microwave scorer and athlete. Portland’s main issue with squaring Simons against a winning team was that he simply made too much money, forcing the coach’s hand to insert him into the starting lineup and perpetuating the too-small backcourt lineup that capped the Blazers’ aspirations for so many years.
In an alternate timeline in which the Blazers renegotiated Simons’ contract to one that looks more like the offer sheet he signed with Philadelphia, the Blazers would gladly have kept Simons as the shooter they desperately need off the bench. As it stands, he joins four other former Blazers chasing a ring with the most talented roster they’ve ever had.
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