Are You Buying More Celtics' or 76ers' Stock This Year? (asking for LeBron???)

A simple question turned into one of the liveliest arguments of the week on The Rich Eisen Show: are you buying more Boston Celtics or Philadelphia 76ers stock this year? The answer split the room, with LeBron James lurking over the whole thing.

At the center was the blockbuster that sent Jaylen Brown to the Sixers. Philadelphia's man in the debate had no doubt his team won it. "In no way do the Sixers have a better record than the Celtics this year," came the challenge from the Boston side, and the Sixers backer fired right back that snatching an opposing team's best player after coming back from down 3-1 in a playoff series is a win no matter how you slice it.

That set off the argument over who Boston's best player even is. The Celtics side insisted it is Jayson Tatum, "the best player for a decade," while the Sixers voice needled that Brown, not Tatum, was the Finals MVP when Boston won its title. The analytics got dragged in too, the studies suggesting Brown ranks far lower than his reputation. "That's why analytics is stupid," the Sixers defender shot back when the numbers were used against him.

Rich, a self-described Knicks fan reveling in the moment, tried to play the skeptic. He floated the theory that the trade was really a hedge fund refusing to pay into the second apron, the same cold math that once shipped Mookie Betts out of Boston. The Sixers side rejected the comparison, and Rich conceded the analogy was imperfect. But he made a bigger admission along the way. "Everyone's coming for what we have," he marveled about his Knicks, before saying the plainest thing of the segment: "I'm way more concerned about this Sixers team."

His concern hinged on the biggest if in basketball. "Now this is the biggest if of all time about Embiid," Rich said, the question of whether Joel Embiid's knees hold up. The Philadelphia optimist reframed it as a gift. "We only need Joel Embiid to be the fourth best player on the squad," he said, imagining a healthy Embiid behind Brown, Maxey, and rookie V.J. Edgecombe. Rich added the wish, only half joking, that the Sixers also drop the constant flopping, comparing Embiid's arm-waving to the inflatable balloon in front of a car dealership.

Then the conversation drifted to LeBron and the odds board, where nobody could find the Lakers, the Sixers, or a clear read on James's next move. The room leaned toward Miami or Golden State if LeBron leaves Los Angeles, with a nod to Draymond Green's on-camera recruiting pitch and speculation about a full-circle finish in Cleveland. Rich pushed back hard on the idea that LeBron is finished. When one voice declared him "a non-factor this season," Rich countered with the obvious. "How was 21 points a game a non-factor?" He argued LeBron could still elevate a contender, bringing a Giannis Antetokounmpo and a Bam Adebayo to the next level.

The Celtics question closed it out. Asked whether Boston needs to abandon its live-and-die-by-the-three identity, Chris allowed, "They can shoot a few less." Rich's read is that the whole point of moving Brown is addition by subtraction, freeing younger players to shine. Whether that works, or whether trading a proven star for Paul George and future picks is the second coming of a fire sale, is exactly the stock question nobody in the room could settle.