It's still August, but the Sixers' new Big 3 isn't waiting for training camp. LeBron James, Jaylen Brown and Tyrese Maxey were spotted grinding through an early-morning workout together, and the internet lost its mind almost instantly.
LeBron, Maxey and Jaylen Brown put in work together at an early-morning gym session.
The fact this trio exists at all is still kind of wild. Philly traded Paul George and a haul of picks to Boston for Brown, then turned around and landed LeBron on a two-year, $8 million deal — reportedly the largest pay cut in NBA history for him. Add that to a roster that already had Maxey, Joel Embiid and VJ Edgecombe, and the Sixers went from playoff hopeful to a team nobody wants to see in April.
Naturally, the first question is who's taking the last shot. Maxey addressed the pecking order directly, and his answer was less about hierarchy and more about ego management on a roster stacked with hardware.
Maxey breaks down how the Sixers will handle crunch-time decisions between him, LeBron, Jaylen Brown and Embiid.
"Nobody on this team can have an ego," Maxey said, pointing out the group includes multiple regular-season MVPs, Finals MVPs and gold medalists. "So the ego has to drop and you have to do it collectively." It's the right answer, and also the only answer — you don't get to have four alphas and a functioning offense unless everyone buys in.
Shaq isn't interested in patience, though. Asked about expectations for LeBron's first season in Philly, O'Neal didn't hedge at all.
Shaq lays out his expectations for the Sixers now that they've added LeBron and Jaylen Brown.
"Championship or bust" is a lot to put on a 41-year-old in a new system, but that's the price of assembling this much star power in one building. And Philly fans are already paying literal prices for it — according to TickPick, the cheapest ticket to the Sixers' home opener jumped from $68 last year to $565 this year, a 731% increase tied directly to the LeBron signing.
None of it means anything until games actually count, obviously. But between the gym sessions, the quotes about ego and the ticket market treating opening night like a heavyweight fight, Philadelphia hasn't felt like this since Embiid's MVP peak — and now he's got a lot more help.