LeBron James called Saturday's scrimmage a "great first step" for the new-look 76ers, and the detail that tells you the most is not the quote. It's the crowd. Throngs of people waited in lines more than 10 deep to get inside and watch a scrimmage. Not a game that counts. Not even a preseason game. A practice.
That is the part of the LeBron James 76ers story that no roster projection captures. Philadelphia does not idle. It arrives, in volume, with opinions already formed, and it showed up for drill work on a Saturday because the sight of James and Jaylen Brown pulling on the same jersey is still a little hard for the eye to process. The all-time leading scorer and the 2024 Finals MVP, warming up in the same gym. Say that out loud a few times and it still sounds invented.
checked the almanac: the last time this city vibrated like this over an arrival was 1982, when Moses Malone came over and immediately turned the mood from hopeful to impatient. Moses called his shot, "fo', fo', fo'," and the Sixers went 12-1 through the 1983 playoffs and won the thing. That is the bar Philadelphia quietly sets for every big name who walks through the door. Fair? Not really. But nobody ever promised this town would be fair about basketball.
Which is why "great first step" is the right phrase and also a careful one. First step implies a long walk. Scrimmages reveal almost nothing about how a team handles a tight fourth quarter in February, but they reveal a little about who wants the ball, who gives it up early, and whether the stars are already talking to each other without being prompted. James has spent two decades being the organizing principle of every room he enters. Brown has spent his career proving he does not need to be organized by anyone. Sorting that out is the whole project, and it does not get sorted in October.
What I'm watching next: the reps. Who initiates in the halfcourt, how the second units are built around the two of them, and whether this looks like a team by the time the games start counting instead of two great players taking turns. The lines outside will be there either way. This city always shows up early.