LeBron James officially signed with the 76ers on Sunday—after Philadelphia spent the past two days adding players while waiting for its biggest move to become official.
On Friday, ESPN reported that James would play his NBA-record 24th season with the Sixers, agreeing to a two-year, $8 million contract that will pay him roughly $4 million both seasons after making $53 million this past one.
James didn’t sign his contract until Sunday evening, which came with a 15% trade kicker, according to ESPN. The team has yet to formally announce the signing.
Throughout Sunday, the Sixers website did not include a single headline about James and still has NBA Summer League and the trade for Jaylen Brown on July 1 as its main headlines. Brown has yet to have his own introductory press conference with the team due to his travel schedule.
Meanwhile, the Sixers continue to work on the roster around James.
On Saturday, ESPN reported that the Grizzlies reached a buyout agreement with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who shares an agent with James in Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul. Caldwell-Pope is coming off an injury-riddled season in Memphis that limited him to 51 games, but has been one of the NBA’s premier 3–and–D players in recent years. He won an NBA championship with James in 2020 and another with the Nuggets in 2023.
The two will join a strong core of Joel Embiid, Brown, VJ Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey, the latter of which is another Klutch client.
Caldwell-Pope, 33, is also signing for the veteran’s minimum, and to make room for him and James, the Sixers will need to waive or trade two players to fit within the first apron. James’s contract puts the Sixers’ salary total at $209.6 million, which is just over the first apron line of $209 million. On Sunday, the Sixers waived Dalen Terry to bring them roughly $2 million below the first apron, without accounting for Caldwell-Pope’s contract.
The team is hard-capped at the first apron after signing Dean Wade for more than $6.1 million of their non-tax mid-level exception. Caldwell Pope’s contract only carries a cap hit of $2.4 million because it’s a one-year deal, giving the Sixers a small amount of cap relief.
Paul has used his podcast, Gameover With Max Kellerman and Rich Paul, as a sounding board throughout James’s free agency and said his star client came to a decision at 1 a.m. ET on Friday. Paul called James’s free agency an “emotional roller coaster every single day.”
