The biggest story of the offseason is now a regular-season reality. The new NBA campaign tipped off on Tuesday, and with it we got our first glimpse of LeBron James in a 76ers uniform. It went about as well as James and his new team could have possibly hoped in their inaugural outing together.
The Sixers beat the Knicks 106-100, spoiling ring and banner night for the defending champions in Madison Square Garden. In 34 minutes, James supplied his usual all-around excellence by stuffing the stat sheet: 14 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and just one turnover. Here are our grades for James from his first game with Philly.
James recently said the luxury of his game is that he can "literally do everything." He's not lying. James doesn't need to be the primary scorer to influence the proceedings and help his team win. That was true against the Knicks.
He got off to a slow scoring start before finishing with 14 points on 5 for 13 shooting. He missed all three of his 3-point attempts. That's not great efficiency.
In 34 minutes, James had nine rebounds, seven assists and helped the Sixers' defense make life difficult on the Knicks, who shot just 37% from the floor and 33% from 3-point range. If those are the kinds of numbers and effort they can expect from the 41-year-old James going forward, Philly will happily take it. What are your takeaways from your debut with your new team?"LEBRON: "I liked the way we played...
Good win for us."@KingJames and the @sixers win their season-opener at MSG! pic.twitter.com/gQDWPAZOiP Selling James as a Sixer isn't a very heavy lift. You've got a franchise that hasn't been out of the second round in 25 years, and then the greatest player of all time comes along to save the day. The narrative writes itself.
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