O'Neal names ball-sharing as the central risk on LeBron James' 76ers roster
Against the backdrop of an off-season that reshuffled Eastern Conference contenders, LeBron James enters his 24th NBA season with a new franchise and a historically rare objective. James signed a two-year deal with the…
Key takeaways
- LeBron James signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers, joining Joel Embiid, Jaylen Brown, and Tyrese Maxey on a roster aimed at ending a title drought dating to 1983.
- Shaquille O'Neal identified ball-sharing among four players who each need the basketball as the central risk to the 76ers' season.
- No player in NBA history has won a championship with four franchises, and James is one of four to have done it with three, alongside John Salley, Robert Horry, and Danny Green.
- O'Neal said James's 2020 Lakers title places him among the franchise greats but on a lower tier than Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
- James enters his 24th NBA season seeking to become the first player to win a championship with a fourth franchise.
Against the backdrop of an off-season that reshuffled Eastern Conference contenders, LeBron James enters his 24th NBA season with a new franchise and a historically rare objective. James signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers, joining one-time MVP Joel Embiid, newly acquired Jaylen Brown, and Tyrese Maxey on a roster assembled to end a championship drought stretching to 1983. Shaquille O'Neal, speaking to Fox News Digital, called the lineup potentially "legendary or dangerous" and then specified exactly which kind of dangerous he means.
A Lakers legacy assessed, and a ceiling named
No player in NBA history has won a championship with four separate franchises. James is one of four players to have done it with three, alongside John Salley, Robert Horry, and Danny Green. His most recent title came with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2020 season, played inside the Disney bubble, and he was named Finals MVP for that championship as he was for each of his previous three.
O'Neal told Fox News Digital that the Lakers title is enough to place James among the franchise's greats. "He definitely won a championship there and was a big game player, so he's in the building," O'Neal said. The ceiling, though, is firm: the "top floor" of the Lakers hierarchy belongs to Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. O'Neal placed himself one level below on what he called the "second floor," noting that Kobe and Magic each spent more time with the franchise than he did and that Magic was the first to bring what O'Neal called "that set." James, in O'Neal's view, will probably remain below those three, even after Philadelphia.
Where the possession math gets complicated
O'Neal's read-through for Philadelphia's season rests on a single variable: one basketball, four players who each need it. Embiid will want it in the post. James, O'Neal says, loves having the ball. That leaves Brown and Maxey, two players built to hold the ball late into the shot clock and manufacture their own shots, working from two or three seconds of possession instead of the full clock. "I don't know if they are going to be ready for that," O'Neal told Fox News Digital.
On balance, the broader cycle of Eastern Conference competition will test whether talent assembled in the off-season can function as a coherent system. The last NBA title Philadelphia won was in 1983.
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