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5 takeaways: LeBron James starts new chapter at Sixers Media Day

The NBA's all-time leading scorer talked with the media on Monday for the 1st time as a member of the Sixers.

John Schuhmann

John Schuhmann

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LeBron James speaks to the media at the 2026 Philadelphia 76ers Media Day.

CAMDEN, N.J. — In an improved and deep Eastern Conference, the biggest spotlight is on the Philadelphia 76ers, who held their media day at their practice facility on Monday.

It was Day 1 of a new era in Philly, one that somehow includes both Jaylen Brown and LeBron James. Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid are still here, and the Sixers seemingly have the talent to reach the conference finals (or beyond) for the first time in 26 years.

Here are some notes and quotes from a busy day at the podium in South Jersey.

1. Maxey draws James back East

James made it clear that his relationship with Tyrese Maxey was a big reason for his decision to sign with the Sixers.

“I had a group of teams that I was interested in,” James said, “and I have a great relationship with Tyrese. We talked a lot, and I kind of picked his brain a lot, on not only where he sees his career going, how he sees the franchise here, how much he believes in the franchise, and if I was to, you know, come here, how does he see me fitting in?

“Do we think it’d be a plus or do we think it’d be a negative? Because I understand what my personality and what comes with me. Sometimes it can be a negative. You know, I understand some people maybe can’t handle what I may bring to the table. And I was just asking all the questions that I could ask him, and it wasn’t just one conversation.

“But I think our relationship, when I broke a lot of the teams down, I broke a lot of the franchises down that I could possibly play for… He was one of the main deciding factors.”

That relationship goes back to 2020, when Maxey was preparing for the Draft and James was preparing for the continuation of the 2019-20 season in the bubble. Maxey changed his workout time from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. to accommodate James, with Rajon Rondo having brought the two together.

The following year, Maxey said he got James to get started at six.

“And then now it just became a thing,” Maxey said. “Every single summer, we get back in the lab.”

“I think now, it’s just really just weird. It’s just weird. I see him in the summer time every year, but to see him here in Camden, New Jersey … It’s a cool experience.”

Maxey tried to recruit James to Philly two years ago, a pitch that didn’t go very far. But when the Sixers acquired Brown in early July, and with James’ days with the Lakers seemingly done, things were much different this time around.

“Once we got Jaylen, I was like, ‘OK, this gets interesting,'” Maxey said, “because then I heard that he didn’t want to go back to L.A. I was like, ‘Man, I’m here, so might as well ask him, hit him and look.’ Then he called me one day. We chopped it up, and I was like, ‘OK, he may be coming.'”

2. Embiid keeps his weight-loss program a secret

Embiid was noticeably thinner, but played it coy when asked about how he shed weight.

“I feel good,” he said. “I won’t get into, you know, all the details of what I did, but felt like I did the right things to put myself and the team in a position to succeed.”

With the additions of Brown and James, the Sixers should have more success in the games and minutes that Embiid doesn’t play than they did the last couple of years. But no matter how much talent this team has put around him over the years, his impact has been huge.

Embiid has played 10 seasons for the Sixers, and in only one of those 10 seasons (2019-20) did the team outscore its opponents in the minutes that he was off the floor.

In total (and including playoffs), the Sixers have been 11.2 points per 100 possessions better with Embiid on the floor (plus-8.0) than they’ve been with him off the floor (minus-3.2) over the last 10 years. Over those 10 regular seasons, they’ve had the winning percentage of a 53-29 team when Embiid has played and a 33-49 team when he hasn’t.

His mobility on defense has been an issue the last few years, and his willingness to play big on offense is important. But what matters most is that Embiid is available and on the floor in some capacity, especially in the playoffs.

“Obviously, you got to build it up because you want to be at your peak in April, May,” he said. “I want to play as much as possible. We got a plan and we got to execute it. The plan is to, you know, make sure I stay healthy, and then be at my best when we get to that time.”

Over the last three years, Embiid has played in just 42% of the Sixers’ games.

3. Sacrifice is the word of the day

Each of the Sixers’ four stars is obviously going to get fewer shots when they’re playing together than they did when they played apart. Usage rates are going to drop.

“If we want to accomplish something that’s really, really important, like if we say that we want to do something special, there will be a collective sacrificing in a good way,” James said. “Sometimes in sports, people hear ‘sacrifice’ and automatically start thinking negative about it. It’s not a negative thing.

“If you sacrifice one or two more shots, that gives you one or two more bursts of energy in the fourth quarter to slide over and take a charge. Or it gives you one or two more bursts of energy to get an offensive rebound for an extra possession, a kick out for a teammate. Or an extra two bursts of energy to run back on defense to get a chase down block, some things that don’t show up in the box scores.”

4. Basketball is not oatmeal

Building the requisite chemistry for the Sixers to be at their best on both ends of the floor will not happen overnight.

“It’s going to take time,” James said. “I think people, sometimes they like they don’t really want to work, and everyone wants instant oatmeal.

“You want to do something special? It takes time, and it takes, every single day, doing things that you may not want to do, because it’s the same thing over and over and over and over and over, repetition after repetition after repetition. In order for us to be great, we have to do things that are just not comfortable. We have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

“That is the best way to expedite being great. You have to fall in love with doing things that’s uncomfortable. And if we can do that, we can be a great team. If we don’t do that, then we’d be like, ‘Oh man, it was a great team on paper, and we had a lot of great talent, and lost in the second round.’

“I don’t want to do that. I didn’t leave my family to lose in the second round. I know that, for sure.”

5. Maxey ready to play off the ball

Maxey is a very good shooter, and he could be better if more of his shots were off the catch. Last season, only 40% of his 3-point attempts, the 14th lowest rate among 305 players with 100 attempts total, were off the catch. And like almost every other shooter, he shot better off the catch (41.8%) than he did off the dribble (33.3%).

With the additions of Brown and James, that rate should go up.

“I think I’m pretty comfortable playing in any type of situation at this point in my career,” he said. “I’ve kind of played under so many different circumstances.

“Our roster this year really creates the ability for myself to get out in transition a little bit more… I don’t always have to come back and like bring the ball up. You know, we got Bron, JB. ‘Process’ can bring it up. VJ can, Anfernee [Simons], Labaron [Philon], and the list goes on and on.

“The opportunity that this roster presents for me is to play off the ball a little bit more, more catch and shoots. I’ll still play on the ball, of course, playing ball screens and different actions like that. But for me to be able to play off the ball, get some catch and shoots, come off some screens, come off some handoffs, get out in transition. I think it’ll be it’ll be good for our team.”

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John Schuhmann has covered the NBA for more than 20 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Bluesky.

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