PHILADELPHIA (AP) — LeBron James and Bryce Harper spent their careers on a parallel path toward stardom.
They were teenage phenoms who graced the cover of Sports Illustrated (back when magazines were cool) and both prodigies were No. 1 overall draft picks straight out of high school.
When Harper earned his first chance at testing free agency, there was only one city, one contract that was right for him.
Philadelphia.
It took a few years, but Harper has some company to fight with him on the short list of top elite athletes who have signed in Philadelphia.
Harper and the Phillies.
Pete Rose and Kyle Schwarber and the Phillies.
Saquon Barkley and Reggie White and the Eagles.
In the greatest July signature in Philadelphia since 1776, James has followed Harper from free agency to Philly when he rocked the NBA world and signed a two-year deal for the bargain-basement price of $8 million total — only a smidge more per season than first-round pick Labaron Philon Jr. will earn — that stamped the Sixers as the most compelling team in the league this season.
Keeping tabs on the ballyhooed deal, Bryce Harper.
“He’s going to have a great couple of years here, and obviously everyone’s going to expect him to win a championship here like everywhere else," Harper said. “So nothing new for him. He’s had all the pressure since he was in high school or younger than that.”
Here's the difference between James and all the superstars in the city that played before him.
He's LeBron James.
Meaning, his reach is so beyond the court — from fame around the globe to his bank account to the cash register to pop culture — that there is no fair comparison. He is No. 4 on Forbes' real-time list of wealthiest athletes at $1.4 billon that his pay cut may not even be noticed in the ledger book. James has commercials and movie roles, and endorsement deals that alone would out-earn every single player on the Sixers.
Joel Embiid, league MVP and two-time scoring champ. He's not LeBron.
Jaylen Brown, NBA Finals MVP and champion, He's not LeBron.
Tyrese Maxey, an All-Star and the real franchise player in Philly. He's not LeBron.
“I think it’s pretty cool to have one of the greatest basketball players ever to play, in the same city,” Phillies shortstop Trea Turner said. "So I’m excited for those who haven’t gotten a chance to see him play.”
Those people might live on Pluto.
Here are the CliffNotes.
James is a 22-time All-Star, a 21-time All-NBA selection, a four-time Most Valuable Player, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, a three-time All-Star Game MVP, and was a member of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team.
He’s also coming off a season where he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game. For his career, he’s averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists in more than 1,600 games.
“He’s played in big markets before,” Harper said. “He knows exactly what he needs to do.”
Harper has largely lived up to the 13-year, $330 million contract signed ahead of the 2019 season when he spurned the Washington Nationals for the Phillies and owned the richest contract in baseball history. He led the Phillies to the 2022 World Series, won the NL MVP in 2021 and helped win back-to-back NL East titles.
But he's 0-for-October.
Barkley rushed for more than 2,000 yards in his first season with the Eagles and led them to a Super Bowl championship and Rose was the missing piece to help Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton win the World Series in 1980. It was the first World Series title in franchise history.
The 76ers have almost seemed to wait as long for a parade down Broad Street.
They have won titles in Philadelphia in only 1967 and 1983 and have improbably failed to advance out of the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs since 2001.
And yet somehow, one of the most famous athletes — strike that, people! — walking and dunking on the face of the Earth decided he wanted to play in Philadelphia.
“I’m not going for money. I’m not going for family,” James wrote Friday on social media. “What am I really playing for at this point? I still want to sacrifice. I still want to work. I still want to grind. I still want to compete, to win and to have a chance at the feeling of winning.”
James celebrated his decision on Instagram with a career highlight reel set to Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill’s “Dreams and Nightmares,” the adopted sports anthem of city teams blasted ad nauseam throughout the sports complex.
The video ends with the lyric, “hold up, wait a minute. Y’all thought I was finished?” and cuts to a 76ers’ logo.
James isn't finished — even if his best isn't yet to come.
He won NBA titles at each of his three previous NBA stops in Cleveland, Miami and the Los Angeles Lakers and could be the first player to ever win a title with four teams.
The countdown to opening night is on.
The stakes have really never been higher for the franchise. If they can't win with the Beatles shirt — LeBron & Embiid & Brown & Maxey — can they ever?
Get ready, everyone.
And skip the advice.
James doesn't need any tips on surviving the deep fryer of fandom in Philly.
“He can do whatever the hell he wants,” Harper said. "But the city loves a winner. So win.”
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
FILE - Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James, left, talks with Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid, right, of Cameroon, after the second half of an NBA basketball game, April 6, 2018, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola, File)
FILE - Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James, left, talks with Philadelphia 76ers' VJ Edgecombe, right, following an NBA basketball game, Dec. 7, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola, File)
The Philadelphia Phillies' mascot, the Phillie Phanatic performs a skit inspired by new Philadelphia 76ers LeBron James during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees Friday, July 24, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
The United States has gradually expanded the scope of its attacks against Iran over the course of two weeks of punishing airstrikes that increasingly resemble the war’s opening salvos.
After a brief ceasefire in June following the signing of an interim deal to end the conflict, a battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz erupted, shattering the truce and pushing the countries back to the precipice of an all-out war across the Middle East.
The U.S. started off with intense waves of strikes on Iran’s navy and coastal defenses earlier this month, aiming to blunt Tehran's ability to attack ships in the strait vital to world energy supplies. In recent days, the U.S. has expanded its targets, hitting bridges and infrastructure in the south and striking deeper into the center of Iran and the outskirts of its capital, Tehran.
Despite its growing intensity and scope, the renewed U.S. aerial campaign is not as fierce in either way as the one at the start of the war, which began on Feb. 28. In just the first 100 hours of the war, the U.S. and Israel hit hundreds of military targets and killed top leaders of Iran, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Iranian Health Ministry says 3,434 people have been killed since the war began, including 55 during the recent escalation. The latest U.S. strikes temporarily disrupted transportation and communications within Iran, and damaged water infrastructure used by thousands of people.
The U.S. military has said its recent barrages were aimed at degrading Iran’s ability to threaten vessels in the strait. But Iran hasn't backed down.
It has intensified strikes on ships in the strait and on Gulf countries housing U.S. bases, killing at least four American soldiers and damaging critical infrastructure. Israel has so far not been targeted in this latest round of fighting, and it has not joined the U.S. in launching attacks.
Here is a look at what the U.S. has been striking and what it may have achieved:
Not long after the countries had reached an interim ceasefire deal, Iran began striking ships in the Strait of Hormuz, triggering tit-for-tat attacks with the U.S. By July 12, the U.S. military intensified its bombing campaign, and a day later, President Donald Trump reimposed a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.
In two days of bombardment, the U.S. military said it struck dozens of targets, including air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone factories and launchers, and small boats. It used precision munitions, naval vessels and, for the first time, one-way attack sea drones.
The strikes focused on coastal provinces along the strait and Persian Gulf: Khuzestan, Bushehr and Hormozgan. The city and port of Bandar Abbas, which is on the strait and home to critical naval and trade infrastructure, bore the initial brunt. Strikes also hit key islands in the Gulf -- Qeshm, Abu Musa and Kish. Further east, naval and military bases in Sistan and Baluchistan province on the Gulf of Oman have been hit.
A flurry of strikes over two days damaged at least six bridges and a tunnel around Bandar Abbas, images on state TV showed. The goal appeared to be to sever the links of the Revolutionary Guard bases there with the rest of the country. Another strike hit a railway junction west of the port city.
Residents captured images of traffic jams on some roads following the strikes.
Over the past two weeks, other strikes in Bandar Abbas hit the offices of the radio and communications regulatory authority, which manages Iran’s radio-frequency spectrum. For three days, the U.S. hit a maritime communications tower in one of the city's ports, totally destroying it on July 17. Another communications tower was hit about 120 kilometers (75 miles) down the coast.
Strikes also disrupted communications temporarily between the mainland and the islands of Kharg and Qeshm, though by the 10th day of the campaign, Iranian authorities said they had restored connections. A fishmeal production factory was hit in Qeshm.
At the northern end of the Persian Gulf, power outages were reported in parts of Khuzestan province after strikes there.
Other infrastructure has also been hit, including an agricultural water pumping station in Khuzestan, killing one person, according to local officials. A reported strike on July 18 hit a water desalination plant in Jask, on a peninsula just outside the Strait of Hormuz, destroying the pumping stations and affecting water supply to 10,000 residents nearby, according to Iranian officials. That attack followed an Iranian strike on U.S. bases in Jordan, where at least three soldiers were killed and others were injured.
A U.S. strike on a border crossing with Iraq, where hundreds of pilgrims had gathered, killed two people, according to state media.
The American military has said it is hitting “logistics infrastructure.” Last week, Trump warned that for every Iranian attack on the strait, a power plant or bridge will be hit.
Iranian media have been quick to report that roads and tunnels hit by the Americans were under repair, or that alternative routes were established to connect the south with the rest of the country.
By the third day of the reignited conflict, U.S. strikes moved to hit deeper inside Iran. Targets included Revolutionary Guard and military bases believed responsible for attacks on American bases in the Gulf, as well as reported missile production units, military installations and airports used by the Guard.
U.S. forces hit a military barracks in the city of Iranshahr in the far southeast of the country, killing seven soldiers and wounding a dozen others, according to Iranian officials. The Iranian military had recently claimed it conducted drone attacks against American bases in the region, including one in Jordan on July 15, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War and the Critical Threats Project.
At least two strikes hit a Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Force installation in Khuzestan province, also believed to have been involved in attacks on U.S. bases.
So far, the Tehran area has only been hit twice, in contrast to the first round of the war, when the capital was pounded by hundreds of strikes, mainly by Israel. A July 19 strike hit the Khojir military complex near Tehran, one of Iran’s main missile factories. A missile site outside the capital was later hit.
A woman walks past a mural depicting a portrait of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the U.S. and Israel strike on Feb. 28, in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Mourners chant as they raise their fists during a gathering commemorating the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla Grand Mosque in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A pro-government demonstrator holds an anti-Trump placard in a gathering commemorating the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a square in Tehran, Saturday, July 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Three boys play in the shallow waters of the Strait of Hormuz, as a plume of smoke rises from an explosion in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, July 13, 2026. (Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)
