CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers were hoping to land LeBron James in free agency after he announced he was leaving the Los Angeles Lakers last July. After almost a month of waiting around, he ended up choosing to end his career with the Philadelphia 76ers. A decision that he says won’t result in him leaving his family just to end up getting bounced in the second round — which is pretty optimistic since the Sixers haven’t advanced out of the second round since 2001.
The only people seemingly aware
of what James was thinking during the free agency process were the players he was communicating with. But from the sound of things, not even those on the short list of his final destination knew much of what LeBron was thinking.
“I knew probably as much as you did,” Mitchell said when asked about his thoughts on James signing with Philadelphia.
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Mitchell also admitted that he thought LeBron was going to come back and end his career where it started.
“I think for a lot of reasons it made sense (for him to sign with Cleveland),” Mitchell said. “I didn’t think Philly. I thought if he didn’t come here, he’d be in Golden State.”
Now James is in Philadelphia playing for one of the handful of teams that stand in the way of the Cavs and their goal of reaching the NBA Finals. Former Cavs general manager Mike Gansey drastically transformed Philadelphia’s roster in a few short weeks, placing them as one of the favorites to win the conference.
The Cavs won’t have to wait long to see how they stack up against the Sixers as they open their season in Philadelphia in under a month.
“For us, it’s about moving forward and not really looking back at that,” Mitchell said. “They’re an opponent. The’ve gotten stronger. Not just him, but they have Jalen Brown, obviously [Tyrese] Maxey, V.J. [Edgecomb], [Joel] Embiid, (and) Anfernee Simons coming off the bench. They got a lot of talent over ther. They’ll be a fierce competitor so we’re excited.”
