LeBron James has spent only a few days on the floor with Joel Embiid as a Philadelphia 76er, but one difference from their previous time together has already stood out to him: Embiid’s health.
Following Philadelphia’s Blue x White scrimmage at Xfinity Mobile Arena, James compared the current version of Embiid with the player he shared the court with for Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The contrast, in James’ view, is significant.
“The difference between ’24 and now is that he’s just so much more healthy,” James said. “He hasn’t missed a practice. He’s been in damn near everything that we’ve done. Pretty much. They’ve had to sit him out at times, even when he wanted to keep going. So it’s been good. Actually, great.”
That is an encouraging development for a Sixers team whose ceiling remains closely connected to Embiid’s availability. Philadelphia has approached the former MVP carefully in recent years because of repeated injury problems, making his ability to participate throughout the opening week of camp especially noteworthy. Embiid was active and mobile, with encouraging signs on both ends of the floor in the scrimmage.
James and Embiid also offered an early glimpse of how their partnership could function offensively. During the scrimmage, James pushed the ball in transition and found Embiid for a three-pointer, one of several moments that showed Philadelphia beginning to build chemistry around its redesigned roster.
For James, however, the afternoon was less about individual highlights and more about transferring the work of training camp into something resembling real competition.
“To be able to take what we’ve done on the practice floor, bring it to a game floor situation around our fans, it was a great first step in the direction we’re trying to go,” James said.
LeBron James on Joel Embiid’s health and their chemistry:
“We built some chemistry” with Team USA in 2024, but the difference now is Embiid is “so much more healthier.”
“He hasn’t missed a practice. He’s been there for everything that we’ve done… It’s been good. It’s actually been great.” 👀🔥 https://t.co/nkjHq1ud86
— 76ersMuse (@76ersMuse) October 3, 2026
The Blue x White game was only an intrasquad scrimmage, and Philadelphia is still at the very beginning of what will be a long process of integrating James with Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown and the rest of the roster.
Still, Embiid being healthy enough to consistently practice may be the most important early development of all.
