LeBron James: A larger-than-life NBA superstar

LeBron James is a larger-than-life figure in the United States, make no mistake about it.

Back in 2009, when I went to watch the Cleveland Cavaliers during an NBA Eastern Conference match, I was greeted with a huge cutout of ‘King James’, as he is known to his fans, outside the Rocket Arena.

It was a season where James won the first of his four NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards.

And although his departure from Cavs to Miami Heat the following year wasn’t without controversy, with fans and ex-players accusing him of choosing to form a super team with Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade in Miami and not trying to win a championship with Cleveland, I saw first-hand the craze around one of the greatest basketball players to have played the game.

Interestingly, more than the game itself, it was the huge cutout of NBA’s all-time leading points-scorer that is still etched in my memory.

Then a few years later, in April 2014, I went to watch the Philadelphia 76ers in action at the Xfinity Mobile Arena. While the game itself was one to forget with the Sixers having one of their worst seasons in NBA history, I couldn’t but think of James, who at that time was plying his trade with Heat. Little did I know then that James would return to Cleveland just three months later and eventually lead them to the NBA title in 2016.

There’s always something about James and his fandom that still endures to this day, even at 41 years of age.

Back in February 2018, a businessman named Asher Raphael arranged for three billboards to be placed a few miles outside of Cleveland in a lighthearted effort to woo James to the Philadelphia 76ers. James decided later that year to leave the Cavaliers and join the Los Angeles Lakers. The billboard bit seemed futile.

Instead, maybe it was just premature. James announced last Friday that he's joining the 76ers in what he said will be the "last decision" of his playing career – and, finally, Raphael can say the billboard investment from eight years ago paid off.

"I was in the middle of a board meeting and my phone was going off like something was on fire," Raphael, the co-CEO of Power Home Remodeling, a Pennsylvania-based firm with offices around the country, told the Associated Press. "And it was people from all walks of life, employees, former employees, friends from all over the country being like: 'It worked. Process completed.' It was the coolest thing."

The original billboard idea was loosely based on the award-winning 2017 film "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," and was simply intended to be something fun.

It wound up going viral.

Raphael ordered billboards with the messaging of "Philly Wants LeBron" and "Complete The Process" – a nod to the 76ers' infamous "process" of rebuilding, with hopes of becoming a contender. The third billboard showed where James would fit on the court with the other Sixers starters at the time: Dario Saric, Ben Simmons, Robert Covington and Joel Embiid. Of those, only Embiid remains with the 76ers.

Raphael considered ordering more billboards this summer but didn't place any orders. Turns out, he didn't need to.

"We just wanted to drop a seed that Philly wanted him," Raphael said. "I think a lot of people think of Philly as a great sports town, but opposing teams think of it as kind of an intimidating place. And we just wanted to drop a seed that he would be welcomed here and he'd love it."

Raphael's company got some name recognition from the billboard move in 2018, and he said it was a great morale boost to employees. And he fully believes James coming to Philadelphia, to play alongside Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown and VJ Edgecombe, is going to pay off for a city that hasn't seen its NBA team win a championship since 1983.

"Philly, right now, is on fire," Raphael said. "At that moment, we became an undeniable contender. And if he comes to Philadelphia and we get that title and that trophy after 44 years, the country will see what Sixers fans are about."

Having won the NBA title with Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013, with Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and with Los Angeles Lakers in 2020, who knows what magic King James will conjure with Philadelphia 76ers in what is likely to be his final two seasons in the NBA.