With basketball star LeBron James's free agency looming closer and closer as days go by, speculations on which team he joins next have not died down. However, some fans are taking it a step further by openly courting James to come to their respective cities and join their home teams. Philadelphia 76ers fans bought billboards in an effort to woo the top athlete, but it seems that Los Angeles Lakers supporters are not to be outdone.
In late February, a local Philadelphia company bought three billboards in Cleveland to try to convince James to join the Sixers. Although the billboards did not overtly tell James to sign with the Sixers, one did bear the hashtag "#PhillyWantsLebron."
The second billboard featured the number 23, James's jersey number, as one of the Sixers' five starting numbers. The third billboard, meanwhile, bore the words "Complete the process," a play on the Sixers mantra "Trust the process."
NBA rules prohibit teams from recruiting active players who are already signed with another team, but there are no rules prohibiting fans from doing the same. While some rumors speculate that James may join the Sixers when his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers expires, other rumors say that the star will join the Lakers instead. Thus, one Laker fan bought his own billboards to court James for the Lakers.
Not to be outdone, Lakers fan Jacob Emrani bought four billboards, one more than the ones for the Sixers. The most prominent billboard contains the hashtag "LABron," a play on LA and James's name. Underneath the hashtag, the billboard says: "Cleveland & Philly, you can't compete with LA." Another billboard said "Forget the process, we win banners!"
"Stop spending your money," Emrani, speaking to ESPN, told Sixers fans. "Philly feels like they can convince him to come and complete a startup. We are not about startups here. They got a startup over there. We got legacy here."
While it may be interesting to see how the Sixers as well as the Cavaliers react to this latest volley from Los Angeles, at the of the day, it is still James who will decide if he will stay in Cleveland or leave to join either the Sixers or the Lakers.
There are rumors saying that James already has a shortlist of four teams he is possibly considering, and all three aforementioned teams make the cut, along with the Houston Rockets.
