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I Still Like the Sixers’ Odds to Sign LeBron James After Everything He Said During His Live Podcast with Tyrese Haliburton
By Matt Schultz
Published:
Who would’ve thought we’d be here with LeBron? The guy will be 42 this upcoming season, and he once again has the sports world hanging on his every word about where he’s going to play next season. That alone is pretty remarkable. What’s also pretty remarkable is that the Sixers are still in contention to land the (arguably) best player to ever lace up basketball sneakers, with Tyrese Haliburton dropping a wildly ham-fisted hint about just that during a live Mind the Game recording with LeBron on Thursday:
“Yo, before we start I gotta ask you bro, like, what are you going on? What’s this, year 76?”
This made me laugh. I like the idea of LeBron and his camp thinking they’re playing 4-D chess by leaving tons of cryptic clues in the media that only a brilliant sleuth could find to crack the case, but really it’s just a bunch of stuff like Tyrese sloppily shoehorning in the word “seventy-six” in the most unnatural place possible. So damn dumb.
Not that it affected the market all that much. Earlier this week, Golden State jumped into the highest percentage chance to land LeBron on Kalshi after Steve Kerr had this interaction with a Warriors fan:
And for the more conspiracy-leaning bettors, this mistake made by ESPN on Thursday could lead you to believe the Golden State deal is already done and the media knows it:
Or conspiracy-heads could lean Philly if you choose to believe Tyrese Maxey canceling his radio interviews all this week had something to do with the impending LeBron news:
As far as what LeBron himself had to say onstage on Thursday, he didn’t seem to lean toward any one team specifically — but there was one interesting tidbit in his response to an 11-year-old kid’s question during a Q&A portion of the live podcast:
“How do I feel about free agency? Obviously it’s a big decision. This is the third time in my career that I’ve been a free agent. I think three, yeah. Um, so it’s a big decision for not only myself, um, but for my family as well, for the last part of my career and where I wanna spend the last few years, or the last year, or the last two years of, you know, my NBA career. So, wherever I go, Elan, I will make my staple on just – I’m a natural-born leader, I’m gonna try to fit in to whatever team I’m going into… give them all the tools and all the knowledge that I’ve been able to, you know, grasp over the last twenty-three years. I know the game. I know the ins-and-outs about the game of basketball… Wherever I land, I hope you support me and I continue to inspire you, alright?”
To me, it sounded like LeBron slipped up by saying “the last few years” of his career, then immediately tried backtracking by saying “last year” or “last two years.” Feels like this means he plans on playing at least one more year after this next one – maybe two more – which makes Cleveland this time around feel less like an inevitably. That’s been my guess from the jump: LeBron will play this season with a semi-random-seeming team (Golden State, Philly), before going back home to finish his career in Cleveland next year or the year after.
All that to say, I still like the Sixers at 14% on Kalshi as a play. Bet a dollar and make $6.73. That’s the best value out of any teams that seem to have a real chance here:
And a chance is all we need…
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com