Veteran LeBron James gave a strong performance in the first half during his first preparatory match with his new team, the Philadelphia 76ers, in its new look, but he failed to avoid his team’s loss to the New York Nets 108-114 in Brooklyn.
James, the league's all-time leading scorer, announced last July that he had signed a two-year contract worth $8 million with the 76ers, putting an end to weeks of speculation about his destination as a free agent, after eight seasons and one title with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The 41-year-old “King” is playing his twenty-fourth season in the league, which is a new record, after previously winning two titles with Miami, a title with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and a fourth title with the Lakers.
LeBron aspires to help the 76ers win their first title since Julius Erving led them to the crown 43 years ago.
Thursday's match was an opportunity for James to play alongside his new teammates, Joel Embiid, VJ Edgecomb, Tyrese Maxey, and Jaylen Brown, who recently joined from the Boston Celtics.
James scored 10 points; He made his only shot from open play and scored all eight of his free throw attempts. He also added four rebounds, five assists and a steal during 18 minutes in the first half.
Brown topped the scoring list with 18 points, while Randle scored 14 points for the Nets, who outscored the 76ers 37-23 in the third quarter to take control of the match. But all eyes were on James, starting with his famous move of scattering chalk powder before kickoff while wearing a 76ers jersey.
James led his new team's attack smoothly during his time on the field, providing all five of his assists in the first quarter, and showing effective chemistry with Maxi.
“I think there were very good things that happened, you know, right from the beginning,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said after seeing his key players play together for the first time.
He added: “The performance witnessed good movements behind the defenders, perfect passes, etc., but there were periods in which we lost the ball a lot... The performance was also marred by some moments that were characterized by confusion and lack of smoothness. However, we must not forget that this is the pre-season, and it is the first time that the team plays with its current squad together.”
He continued: “I think we have to look at the matter from the perspective of the positives and lessons learned, and identify the aspects in which we can improve.”
The 76ers have two matches remaining in the pre-season, both against the Boston Celtics, before playing the opening match of the regular season in the league against the New York Knicks, the defending champion, in Madison Square Garden on October 20.
Since joining the team, James has found himself facing the “noise” and external comments surrounding his new team.
James resorted to Instagram to refute a report issued by the match commentator during the team’s first match in the preparation period on Monday. The report claimed that he reprimanded his teammate Embiid for being late for training. “He was never late,” he wrote. So stop lying.”
James had acknowledged, during the team's media day last month, that such external hype surrounding the 76ers would double, triple, and quadruple "now that I'm here."
The star Neymar ignited the competition for the Brazilian Football League title this season between Flamengo and Palmeiras, five stages before the end of the competition.
Neymar prevented the Flamengo team from continuing its uprising and achieving its sixth successive victory in the competition, after he led his team, Santos, to overturn a 0-2 deficit to a dead-time draw with a score of 2-2, Thursday evening local time (Friday morning GMT), within the competitions of the 29th stage of the competition, which also witnessed a valuable victory for Palmeiras over its guest Bahia with a score of 1-0.
Flamengo ended the first half of its match in Sao Paulo against its host, Santos, leading with two clean goals scored by Danilo and Lucas Paqueta in the 43rd and 4th minutes of stoppage time.
In the second half, Neymar led Santos to revolt in the fatal hour, after the veteran Brazilian star scored two goals for the hosts in the 82nd and 88th minutes from two penalty kicks, knowing that Flamengo was playing with 10 players starting in the 79th minute, after its player Jorginho was sent off.
Santos now has 42 points in eighth place, while Flamengo remains at the top of the standings with 61 points, but the gap separating it from its closest rival, Palmeiras, has shrunk to only one point.
For its part, Palmeiras regained the tone of victories that it had missed in the last stage of the competition, following its difficult victory over Bahia with a clean goal scored by Jose Lopez in the seventh minute.
With this result, Palmeiras satisfied its fans, who felt frustrated after the team fell into the trap of a scoreless draw with its host Gremio in the last stage of the competition.
This loss caused Bahia, which suffered its seventh loss in the competition during the current season and the second in a row, to stop at 46 points in sixth place.
The remaining matches of the stage that were held on the same day resulted in Fluminense defeating its guest Curitiba 4-0, while Atletico Paranaense tied with its guest Atletico Mineiro 2-2.
Argentine football legend Lionel Messi continues to bid farewell to his followers on social media, after retiring from international football with his country's national team.
This time, Messi's brief and simple message focused on a specific image, which was the one that traveled around the world during the "El Clásico" match between his former team, Barcelona, and its traditional rival, Real Madrid, at the "Santiago Bernabeu" stadium in the Spanish League championship of the 2016-2017 season.
In that match, which ended with Barcelona's 3-2 victory over Real Madrid thanks to a goal scored by Messi in the last moments, the Argentine magician took off his shirt and raised it high in front of the fans of the royal team.
That celebration entered history as one of the most deeply rooted moments in the memory of Messi’s career. About ten years later, the current American Inter Miami star re-enacted that same celebration via his account on the Instagram application, but this time wearing the colors of the Argentine national team, where he appeared in a “Tango Dancers” shirt, and wrote the word “thank you” in Spanish above the number 10 instead of his name.
Messi accompanied all of this with another message that directly addressed the hearts of the Argentine fans, where he wrote: “Everything has been said. Now, everything is complete. The only words that come from my heart are: Thank you, Argentina.”
Messi played his last match with the Argentina national team, during their 3-0 victory over the Benin national team, in the friendly match that was held between them last Tuesday, ending his busy career with the team that lasted for 21 years, and witnessed his country winning the World Cup title in 2022, as well as the Copa America Cup twice.
