The anticipatory excitement turned into a mode of grave unfamiliarity after he jogged out of the tunnel for his pregame warm-up.
He still showed he was ever the playmaker, zipping through the teeth of the Brooklyn Nets defense before bouncing a dime to the cutting VJ Edgecombe, whom he calls a “star,” a play he made countless times in the eight years he had Los Angeles Lakers across his chest.
But it just felt odd.
Odd is perhaps how LeBron James has felt since the world found out he was leaving Los Angeles back in late June.
Former Lakers Star Drops Truth Bomb Amid New Chapter
There are many things truly rare about James. He is playing in a record 24th season; despite being 41 and past his prime, he just gripped the world for nearly a month as he went through his free agency process; he is considered the marquee offseason addition that made a deep playoff team a title contender; and he, for many, is still the face of basketball. Now, he is trying to figure things out being away from family, something he hadn’t experienced before.
“Time can be a blur in an NBA season, so it’s easy to lose track of time as James may have,” Chris Hine of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote. “Also making the transition to the Sixers a little tricky for James is staying connected with his family. He said after Saturday’s Blue x White scrimmage that it’s ‘going to be a bit of a challenge’ not being around them as much, while saying everyone in the organization has been ‘super welcoming.’
Said James: “Every day is getting better, and obviously I’m gonna have some days where some days will be better than others,” James said. “But when I get to the facility, around these guys, it definitely helps. We got good energy, good spirit. Obviously, the basketball game, what it brings to all of us is a sense of like, togetherness and fun. It’s fun to go to work.”
Has it dawned on James that he is not a Laker for the first time in nearly a decade?
“It felt a little different,” James said Thursday after his 76ers preseason debut at Barclays Center. “Obviously, just wearing a new uniform, but the game is the game, and the games need to be played on the floor. And I was happy to be able to log some minutes with the guys that we’ve been going at each other in practice for the last two weeks, a week and a half, or whatever the case may be, however long we’ve been practicing.”
James Has Moved On, and So Has L.A.
James’ move to Philadelphia created what many expect to be a new monster in the Eastern Conference. But James’ previous team is expected to do some damage of its own out West.
So much has been made of James and the Lakers’ split. Whether it was James who decided to move on or the Lakers who chose to go a different direction will continue to be debated.
What we are left with is to wait for Dec. 25, when James returns to L.A., gets to see his family and show the Lakers a little something-something.
Ex-Lakers LeBron James Makes Honest Admission Amid Difficult L.A. Departure