July 08, 2026
Kevin Barrett/for PhillyVoice
Bob Myers has won high-profile free-agency sweepstakes before. Can he do it again?
Wednesday morning's episode of the "Game Over" podcast with Max Kellerman and Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul features an interesting guest: Bob Myers, President of Sports for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment whose importance with the Sixers has meaningfully heightened over the last few months.
Myers – on the heels of a report from Shams Charania of ESPN that LeBron James is taking the Sixers' pitch "really seriously" and that the Sixers are among the three strongest contenders to secure the services of the NBA's all-time leading scorer – lays out what that pitch actually sounds like, seated next to James' longtime agent.
On a podcast earlier this week, Paul presented a whiteboard with several options for James' next landing spot written out, with the 41-year-old listed as a member of prospective starting lineups. The Sixers were the first team he spoke about, and Tyrese Maxey – also a Klutch client – was the only player with a star next to his name. Myers suggested that if a second whiteboard was used and each person evaluated each potential starting five, the Sixers would be seen as the team with the potential to win the most. At the end of the episode, Myers playfully bemoaned the fact that his own name was not on the whiteboard. Finally, the whiteboard was wheeled in front of the camera and Paul added his name.
Right before his name was added to the whiteboard, Myers dove into a more direct pitch for James to join the Sixers (interruptions from Kellerman and Paul edited out).
"If you're talking about the Sixers, if he was here, I would say, 'I honestly believe this is your best chance to win.' You have to decide all the other things, that are equally important, because it's his life. He has to play, he has to face the scrutiny of his decision. Half the people will say, 'You should have done this, you should have done that.' Criticize him, or whatever, which is his life, so he's been through all that.
What I would just say is, if it's about winning, let's talk about this team. Because you can win here, in Philadelphia. If you want to talk about other stuff: what's this guy like, what's that guy like – by the way, he knows players, a lot of them, better than I do. Their games – this is a guy that probably watches more basketball than anybody understands. He's probably watching a game in February that nobody's watching. So not only does he know the guys, he knows how they play.
...All I could talk about would be winning and, organizationally, support. But if there's other reasons, it's completely fine. Let's be honest: whatever I say doesn't really matter to what he's going to do. Let's be honest. And I'm okay saying that. It doesn't matter.
...I said this at the start: whatever he decides, he's well-equipped to make the decision. This isn't an 18-year-old, this isn't a 25-year-old. I said this before: he's 41. He has grown children, he's won championships.
...Where he fits in so well [with the Sixers' starting lineup], it's, like, 'Boom.' It's right there. And the skillsets complement – it's very complementary. Because LeBron's been a high-usage guy, but he doesn't have to be. He can be, but he doesn't have to be.
...To me, what I would say – you hook me up to a polygraph, all these teams you're thinking about, I think the Sixers would beat those teams. Am I right? That's just my opinion... All you can say [as] somebody representing a team, or all I would say, is 'Win.' This is the best chance to win."
Kellerman then asked Paul what he sees as the strongest points in favor of James joining the Sixers. Paul spoke about his own familiarity with the city and organization and the fact that he already has a high-profile client on the team in Maxey. Throughout the episode, Paul very much downplayed his own role in James' decision.
Earlier in the episode – shortly after a discussion about Joel Embiid's health, during which Myers spoke about the importance of Embiid finally having a healthy offseason this summer – the trio dove into the Sixers' acquisition of five-time All-Star Jaylen Brown, making Myers the organization's first decision-maker to talk about the move publicly.
First, Myers decried the analytical arguments against Brown, comparing them to ones made against Klay Thompson during the Golden State Warriors' four-championship dynasty. How could Brown have won 2024 NBA Finals MVP, Myers asked, if he was not particularly good?
"That's the analytics: winning," Myers said. "His team won."
Myers argued that analytics sometimes overvalue certain skills and aspects of the game, suggesting abandoning analytics or trusting them implicitly would be a fool's errand. Paul later suggested that Brown could be a culture-changing player for the Sixers, just as Maxey has been in recent years.
Another Sixers note: at one point during the podcast, when asked by Paul how he would navigate the NBA's second apron as a front-office leader, Myers mentioned Josh Harris' willingness to spend as much money as he needs to. Kellerman implied that financial considerations were at fault for Jared McCain, Isaiah Joe and Julian Champagnie no longer being members of the Sixers. While Joe was a preseason roster cut on a minuscule salary and Champagnie was a two-way player, the trade of McCain in February did get the Sixers under the luxury tax at the trade deadline, something that has happened with the Sixers a handful of years in a row.
Myers spoke at length about the process behind the McCain trade, one of the final transactions made by Daryl Morey before his six-year tenure running the Sixers ended.
"The McCain thing was more, 'Let's do that, take the picks and try to turn it into something.' And obviously Daryl was doing it, and I think Daryl did a very good job in many respects. Couldn't get another player back," Myers said. "So when you don't get another player back, it looks just like you just tried to get out of the tax. That's not what happened. The idea was, 'We're going to take that [first-round] pick and the seconds, and let's try to grab another player who can maybe help us more.' That was the thought. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don't get it right. But it wasn't, 'Let's get out of the tax.' It happened to get us out of the tax because no other player was available to trade for. But these are nuances nobody wants to hear, is my point."
Myers does not officially have a title within the Sixers organization, but his presence around the team increased significantly last season. When Morey was let go after the season, Harris appointed Myers to run basketball operations in the interim and lead the search for a replacement. Myers tapped former Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Mike Gansey in the role, and made it clear that he would be involved in the team's "higher-level" processes moving forward, from drafting to trades to free-agency meetings.
Gansey, for what it's worth, has history with James – not just from their shared time with the Cavaliers, but dating back as far as their days playing in Ohio in high school.
