In LeBron James, Jaylen Brown finally gets the perfect running mate

My first thought when LeBron James announced he was going to Philadelphia was not about whether the 76ers could win a championship or how the balance of power in the Eastern Conference might be impacted.

My first thought was, finally, Jaylen Brown has his intellectual running mate.

James and Brown are elite players, but throughout their respective careers very few of their star teammates shared their willingness to engage publicly with larger questions about race, labor, power, education, economics and athlete empowerment.

For nine seasons, Brown played in Boston alongside Jayson Tatum. They made a lot of beautiful music together, including winning an NBA championship in 2024. But as he got older, Brown, now 29, became increasingly more involved and more vocal in off-court affairs revolving around Black culture, history and economic empowerment. In the past year, he became a vocal critic of media narratives and narrators.

In his 23 NBA seasons, the 41-year-old James has had Hall of Fame teammates, championship teammates and Olympic teammates. But rarely has he had a teammate as vocal as he was in conversations that extended beyond basketball.

Brown potentially is that teammate.

James also came along at a time when other star NBA players such as Stephen Curry, Chris Paul and Kevin Durant were outspoken about abuses of power and what they saw as assaults on the African American community.

In 2017, Brown and Philadelphia center Joel Embiid’s second NBA season, there was a loud and forceful pushback from the Black athlete community against the policies and language of Donald Trump, who was serving his first term as president. This was in the middle of a string of high-profile deaths of young African Americans, beginning in 2012 with the shooting death of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Florida. James was with the Miami Heat at the time and led a tribute to Martin by Heat players.

In 2017, the Golden State Warriors won the NBA title. The Warriors and Curry told reporters he planned to skip their White House visit. A day later, Trump rescinded the invitation, to which James famously responded on social media: “U bum [Curry] already said he ain’t going! So therefore ain’t no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!”

Paul, then a member of the Houston Rockets, backed up James by responding to Trump: “With everything that’s going on in our country, why are YOU focused on who’s kneeling and visiting the White House??? #StayInYoLane.” Paul added, “And I doubt he’s man enough to call any of those players a son of a b‑‑‑‑ to their face.” Paul was referencing Trump’s public statement in September 2017 when he encouraged NFL team owners to “get that son of a b‑‑‑‑” off the field for protesting during the national anthem.

Nearly a decade later, we are in a different time and place when it comes to public dissent from high-profile, well-compensated athletes. I call it Quiet-tude.

Brown, however, has continued to speak publicly about the racism he experienced early in his career, the president’s fitness for office, and the need for economic development in the Black community. These are all themes James has tackled in principle and in practice with the creation of an empire he controls. James inspired the phrase “shut up and dribble” from a Fox News host who wanted James and other NBA players to stay in their place.

In James, Brown has the rare teammate who has lived longer, accomplished more, achieved legendary stature and won more championships. I highlight all of this to say James is someone Brown can listen to and learn from, not necessarily about basketball, but about “being.”

James can be that mentor we’ve all encountered in our youth when we thought we had all the answers. He’s the mentor who provides insight and wisdom, who acknowledges that we are indeed at the right intellectual church but sitting in the wrong pew.

And James is still on the president’s radar.

Speaking to reporters July 24, Trump was asked to weigh in on the debate over who was a better player, LeBron James or Michael Jordan, to which the president said, “He’s a really good guy. LeBron is — maybe he’s a racist. Maybe he doesn’t like Trump, I don’t know. I only like people that like me. So I would say Michael Jordan all the way.”

The president said he had a good relationship with Jordan.

“Michael Jordan’s a guy that’s a friend of mine — play golf with him. He’s a really good guy.”

I doubt James or Brown will be playing rounds of golf with the president. If the 76ers win the NBA title, I doubt either Brown or James will make the trip to the White House.

How great of an irony would that be. In fact, that could easily be one of several motivational factors for Brown and James bringing a championship to Philadelphia for the first time in 43 years. Imagine winning the NBA title and being in position to turn down an invitation to the White House before one is even extended.

But there is an extremely long, hard road to glory to travel, and steep mountains to climb before the 76ers can reach that point.

James has made that climb four times; Brown has made it once, and 76ers head coach Nick Nurse made it once when he led the Toronto Raptors to the NBA title in 2019. There are plenty of basketball questions to answer, and we will be debating those throughout the summer, the end of the fall and probably for much of the 2026-27 NBA season.

Can Nurse do what Doc Rivers did in 2008 when he led the Celtics to their first NBA championship in 22 years by convincing Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett to play for one another? The oft-injured Embiid has never reached the conference finals and has been criticized for not taking conditioning seriously or making winning a priority. Tyrese Maxey is a two-time All-Star and VJ Edgecombe is a rising star, but neither has made the championship journey.

James and Brown will be the engines of this train, though the reality is that James is not the player he was even at 35. The challenge for Brown will be to lead this orchestra in a way he’s never had to before. The 76ers have a pair of young supersonic players, an unreliable force in the middle and a grand old man.

But the basketball questions interest me far less than the potential teacher-student/mentor-mentee relationship between James and Brown.

James has the young superstar who can help him cement his legacy with a fifth NBA title. Brown has the running mate who can help him get to an elusive next level. But what’s most fascinating is the potential intellectual combustion of a partnership that can bring a championship to Philadelphia on and off the court.