Lebron James Doesn't Plan 'to Lose in the Second Round'

LeBron James took his seat and fidgeted with a microphone before he tossed his identification placard on the ground. "You guys know who I am, right?" James asked. He needed no introduction at the 76ers' media day in New Jersey on Monday, the AP reports. The most famous basketball player in the world and the NBA's career scoring leader was indeed in a No. 23 Philadelphia jersey for the first time. He's happy to play for the Sixers, happy to play with close friend and fellow All-Star Tyrese Maxey and happy to start a 24th NBA season—but he declined to estimate how much longer his career will last.

He did make clear that he plans to win in Philadelphia. "I didn't leave my family," James said Monday, "to lose in the second round." The Sixers were swept in the second round of the playoffs last year to cap a 45-37 season. James, Maxey, Joel Embiid, and the other new star Sixers player, Jaylen Brown, were on hand for media day ahead of the start of training camp and what figures to be the most anticipated season in Philly since Julius Erving's heyday. James is the undisputed star of the show. Much as James did for Cleveland when he ended a 56-year championship drought there by leading the Cavaliers to the title in 2016, he's in Philadelphia largely to help snap a drought for the Sixers that stretches to 1983.