The Chosen One chooses Philly
By Dana O’Neil, CNN
Philadelphia (CNN) — There aren’t many days that Angelo Cataldi wishes he still had to go to work. For 30-plus years, Cataldi anchored Philadelphia’s morning sports talk radio show, his daily dose of unfiltered honesty giving voice to a fan base that could never be accused of being a little bit sunny.
Cataldi retired in 2022, at the end of an uncomfortably blissful year in which the Phillies made the World Series and the Eagles went to the Super Bowl. The sports world went on without him, and he happily went on without it, doting on his grandkids and enjoying his time on the Jersey Shore.
And then on an otherwise obscure Friday morning, Cataldi’s son, Neil, called to tell his pop that LeBron James ended his free agent roadshow to announce he was coming to Philadelphia. As he always did in his radio days, Cataldi immediately put his finger on the pulse of the city’s reaction. “You’re kidding, right?” Cataldi told Neil. “That didn’t really happen, did it?”
That is it entirely. The Chosen One chose Philly, a city that nearly prides itself on not being choosable. The long-suffering geographic middle child stuffed between New York and Washington, DC, Philadelphia does not do bougie because bougie doesn’t do Philly.
“Sex and the City” and “Gilmore Girls” were set in New York.
Philly? Philly gets “Mare of Easttown” and “Task.”
Toothless Bobby Clarke became the face of the Broad Street Bullies when he led the Flyers to back-to-back Stanley Cups, and among the stars for the 1980s World Series-winning Phillies was Tug McGraw, a long-haired closer who, a year earlier, owned a 4.51 ERA. The 1993 Phils were a bunch of ragamuffins, anchored by Lenny Dykstra and Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams. In 2018, the Eagles won the Super Bowl on a trick play executed by a one-time third-round pick quarterback who got ditched a season earlier by the Kansas City Chiefs. When they won it all again in 2025, Kevin Hart danced around the stage, not Taylor Swift.
“Top athletes, they usually flirt with Philly,’’ says Cataldi. “They don’t usually come here.’’
Yes, Bryce Harper opted for the Phillies in 2019, years after Terrell Owens signed up for the Eagles in 2004 (and then wound up doing sit-ups in his driveway in protest a season later).
But this is LeBron James, on the shortest short list of NBA greatest of all time, and a generational one-name-only athlete alongside Tiger, Brady and Serena.
He’s going to practice in Camden. He’s going to drive on the Schuylkill.
Pat’s or Geno’s? Wait. Could he end the debate?
Some 345 years ago, a King (Charles II of England) granted a piece of land to Billy Penn to offset some debts. Penn sailed up the Delaware River and founded Philadelphia. Now King James is calling Philadelphia home.
It is entirely preposterous, a psyche-shaking upset that long has preferred the brotherly shove to the love. So big is James he did the unthinkable: a week before training camp, he stole the headlines from the Iggles.
All of this absurdity is underscored by the fact that James chose the Sixers. If Philly hasn’t changed its ethos, it has at least seen its fortunes improve. The Eagles have won two Super Bowls in the last eight years and the Phillies won the World Series in 2008 and played in it in 2009 and 2022. Even the young Flyers won a playoff round this year.
The Sixers? Well, no. In 2013, general manager Sam Hinkie asked Philly fans to “trust the process.’’ That method essentially boiled down to tanking, or at least trying to frontload the roster with early draft picks and young talent.
Longtime Philadelphia Daily News sportswriter Dick Jerardi once likened the process to a basketball Ponzi scheme. “I’ve hated this team for the entirety of the process,’’ he says. The process never, in fact, progressed in the playoffs. “I don’t think when they were putting this together they said, near the end, we’re going to get LeBron,’’ Cataldi deadpans. “That wasn’t part of the process.’’
Hinkie left in 2016, beginning a nearly decade-long series of transient front-office moves and structural shifts as the franchise struggled to figure out who the decision-makers would be. The only constant that remained was the Sixers’ inability to make the Eastern Conference finals since 2001.
Leadership managed to put together a viable roster, drafting Tyrese Maxey in 2020 and recently VJ Edgecombe to go with Joel Embiid but the coup came this spring. Bob Myers, orchestrator of the Golden State Warriors fiefdom, came in as president of Harris Blitzer, the Sixers ownership group, and tabbed Mike Gansey as president of basketball operations. Six weeks later, Gansey lured Jaylen Brown, the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, from Boston to Philly, setting the stage for James.
James is not coming here for the soft pretzels. He is not the first star athlete to seek out a new home for his golden year(s). Joe Namath went from the Jets to the Rams. Joe Montana swapped 49ers red for the Chiefs. Michael Jordan finished up his career with the Wizards and Tom Brady relocated from New England to Tampa Bay. Of course, only one of those icons, Brady, won a title in his new locale.
Which is why, at 41, James made a purposeful choice. Cleveland is home and Miami a former stop, but Philadelphia is, especially with Brown, the team that not only he could help win; it’s the team best positioned to help him win one more title.
And unlike so many of those who failed to win elsewhere, James is still a very viable player. He is not, like Namath, on aching knees or like Jordan, coming back from his second retirement. He’s a perfect playmaker to complement Maxey, a power forward opposite Brown and yet because of their abilities, not required to do everything himself.
The Sixers opened as 50-1 to win the NBA championship. The team’s odds improved to 25-1 after signing Brown. By mid-afternoon on July 24, after James officially announced his decision (part two), they were 7-1.
Which, of course, is the catch.
Philly may be shedding its second-fiddle status, but it remains entirely repulsed by frauds and underachievers. For all of his foibles and his indifference to practice, Allen Iverson will forever be more beloved here than Donovan McNabb. Iverson sacrificed his pint-sized body daily; McNabb puked in a Super Bowl huddle.
James, per his own statement, came here to “help make the Philadelphia 76ers a championship team.’’
That hasn’t happened since 1983. But well-versed and long-suffering Philly fans will tell you that perhaps history is repeating itself. The Sixers in ’83 made their third NBA Finals in four seasons. The season prior, even with Dr. J and Maurice Cheeks, Philadelphia lost to the Lakers 4-2 with Darryl Dawkins unable to contend with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. That offseason, the 76ers lured Moses Malone, inarguably the best big man in the game, to town for a reported $13.2 million.
The “Chairman of the Boards” proceeded to average 24.5 points and 15.3 rebounds, propelling Philadelphia to a championship-series sweep of LA.
“Poor Nick Nurse,’’ says Cataldi, about the Sixers’ head coach. “I hope for his sake he at least goes 80-2.’’
Spoken like a true Philadelphian.
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