The Philadelphia 76ers entered the 2018 offseason with an All-Star starter in Joel Embiid and Rookie of the Year Ben Simmons. The hope was that these two great players under the age of 25 would be enough to convince LeBron James to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and ignore the media induced glamour that the Los Angeles Lakers carried. James ultimately chose the Lakers despite them only winning 35 games last season and failing to make the playoffs for five years in a row.
‘”You look at the Lakers,…Being able to play for a historic franchise with so much history, and now being able to partner with Magic Johnson, someone I kinda like looked up to when I was younger and wanted to make no look passes like Magic, wanted to get on the break and be Showtime like Magic and then for it to all come to fruition at this point…”‘
The above LeBron James quote was his first public comments after signing with the Lakers and it seems likely that his positive feelings about playing for the Magic Johnson lead Lakers is now a part of history.